Beyond Policy: How Iowa Reduced Recidivism by Changing Its Culture
Reducing recidivism is one of the most persistent challenges in criminal justice. For decades, many states remained stagnant despite new policies, programs, and mandates.
Well, besides the Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC). They successfully reached one of their lowest recidivism points in a decade.
What makes their story even more remarkable? They did it during a time of major disruption.
In 2023, Iowa underwent a sweeping structural change, bringing local community corrections districts under the umbrella of the Department of Corrections. The restructure intended to improve alignment and efficiency. However, the change unintentionally disrupted long-standing identities, and challenged how people worked together.
Yet, amid all that change, something else was happening beneath the surface.
A Different Starting Point: Culture as the Foundation
“We could have focused only on compliance and structure,” said Dr. Beth Skinner, Director of the Iowa DOC. “But if we were going to move forward as one system, we needed a solid foundation.” That foundation wasn’t policy, it was culture.
Leaders across the system grappled with fear and misalignment. Silos existed not just between divisions, but within them. Communication was inconsistent. Feedback loops were weak. People didn’t necessarily feel safe to speak up. Instead of pushing forward with technical fixes, Iowa paused and asked a deeper question: How do we create an environment where people can actually do this work well together?
The Hard Work: Listening, Not Avoiding
Now, you may wonder, “what sets Iowa apart from other States?”
Iowa began initiating difficult conversations, instead of avoiding them. “We sat in rooms and heard what people had to say which included the good, bad, or ugly,” Skinner shared. “And I wouldn’t change that.” Through feedback forums, surveys, and direct engagement with staff at all levels, leaders began to surface the real issues:
- Resistance rooted in lack of understanding
- Fractured communication
- Inconsistent practices across regions
- A culture where feedback wasn’t always safe
It wasn’t easy. “It was scary,” Skinner admitted. “You have to be willing to hear hard things about your organization and be ready to act on them.”
From Talking About Culture to Measuring It
Rather than treating culture as an abstract idea, Iowa wanted to make sure it was measurable. The leadership teams participated in pulse checks, while working with ACJI, which focused on:
- Engagement
- Equal participation in conversations
- Psychological safety
- Culture uptake
The results told a clear story over time. The culture was shifting. Leaders reported:
- Greater willingness to speak up
- More balanced participation in conversations
- Increased trust across teams
IDOC reported more “equal turn-taking” in conversations and in diverse perspectives throughout leadership. “These are the kinds of shifts that tell us we’re moving in the right direction,” Skinner said. “If those numbers had gone the other way, we would’ve had to reassess.”
Psychological Safety: The Turning Point
As the work evolved, psychological safety became prominent. Leadership considered it more than a buzzword. They committed to creating psychological safety in daily practice.
It showed up in:
- Leaders challenging ideas openly
- Staff giving upward feedback without fear
- Difficult conversations happening more frequently and productively
“When people feel safe, they stop working around the system and start working within it,” Skinner explained. And that distinction matters.
In many systems, when policies change, but culture doesn’t, people find workarounds. However, people tend to engage directly with each other, with leadership, and the work itself when psychological safety is present.
Why Culture Drives Outcomes
Recidivism is a lag measure. It takes years to move. Culture, on the other hand, is a lead measure, which means it leads to bigger outcomes, like recidivism. In other words, you need to work on your culture before lowering recidivism rates.
Culture shapes:
- Daily decision-making
- How staff respond to data
- Whether evidence-based practices are implemented with fidelity
“You can have the best programs in the world,” Skinner said, “but if your culture doesn’t support them, they won’t be as effective.” In Iowa, culture created the conditions for:
- Honest feedback
- Stronger alignment
- Better use of data
Consistent implementation of evidence-based practices And over time, those conditions led to measurable results.
A Shift in Leadership Mindset
One of the most powerful changes wasn’t structural, it was personal. Skinner noticed leaders began to:
- Slow down and listen
- Incorporate feedback into decisions
- Embrace “progress over perfection”
- View mistakes as opportunities to learn
Language shifted, too. Concepts like fail forward, shared accountability, and learning organization became part of everyday conversation. And with that came something deeper and more powerful than HR systems and a unified chain of command. What IDOC created through this process was a shared identity.
The Role of Partnership
Iowa didn’t do this work alone. They partnered with Guidehouse and ACJI. Guidehouse supported IDOC’s structural transformation and helped them design a roadmap for change. ACJI supported them with the human-centric side of the work through coaching and facilitated conversations, which improved leadership development.
Together, these efforts helped bridge the gap between the structure and behavior, policy and practice, strategy and culture.
5 Core Lessons Leaders Must Learn
1. Culture is not a side, or pet, project
- It is the foundation everything else rests on.
2. You can’t skip the hard conversations
- Avoiding them delays progress. Leaning into them builds trust.
3. Measure what matters early
- You don’t have to wait years for outcomes, track leading indicators like engagement and psychological safety.
4. Psychological safety is not optional
- It’s what allows systems to adapt, learn, and improve.
5. This is long-game work
- “There’s no finish line,” Skinner said. “You have to show up every day and ask: are we moving closer to the culture we want or further away?”
The Bottom Line
Iowa didn’t reduce recidivism by chance. They didn’t do it by policy, or by structure, or by data alone. They did it by aligning people, purpose, and practice, and by committing to the kind of culture where meaningful change can actually take root.
Because in the end, culture doesn’t just support strategy. It determines whether strategy works at all.
