Iowa's prison population shrank 1% between 2021 and 2022, according to the latest Justice Department data.
Why it matters: The downsizing comes as the U.S. overall combined state and federal prison population bumped up 2.1% — the first increase in almost a decade, a recent DOJ report found.
Zoom in: Iowa prison officials recently credited treatment programs as well as increased access to education and apprenticeships for lower recidivism rates.
Reality check: The U.S. prison population remains extremely high compared to the years before Nixon-era "war on drugs" and "tough on crime" politics took hold, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.
That includes Iowa, where there were fewer than 2,000 prisoners in 1978 and just under 8,500 in 2022.