Are Sand’s tweets about spending $0 in response to prison attacks accurate?

Funding for the Iowa Department of Corrections has come under increased scrutiny since the March 23 murders of two Anamosa State Penitentiary employees.

State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat who told the Carroll Times Herald on May 27 he is considering a run for governor in 2022, is among the critics of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds over prison funding.

“Dozens of correctional officers sent to hospital over the last 5 years due to assault on the job: $0,” Sand tweeted May 28. He then said, “A few threats & some protestors on the Governor’s lawn: $400,000,” with a link to a KCRG-TV story about the state paying $400,000 for a fence around the Terrace Hill mansion where the governor resides.

Sand later tweeted May 28 the $0 figure “is focused on years of violence leading up to now that saw no action.”

“No one would read this tweet and think I was saying DOC doesn’t exist or is costless,” Sand said in a third tweet on May 28. “I’m saying the violence saw no meaningful response.”

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This episode of the Fact Checker podcast was researched and written by John Steppe of The Gazette and is co-hosted by The Gazette's Erin Jordan, Michaela Ramm, and Marissa Payne. The Fact Check podcast is produced by Stephen M. Colbert and music is Lobby Time by Kevin MacLeod.

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