Establishing a criminal offense for written or electronic threats to kill, cause bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, and providing penalties

Description

House File 2535 establishes a criminal offense for written or electronic threats to kill, cause bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism.

Under the Bill, it is unlawful for a person to send, post, or transmit, or procure the sending, posting, or transmission of, a writing or other record, including an electronic record, in any manner in which it may be viewed by another person, when in such writing or record the person makes a threat to kill or cause bodily harm to another person or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism. A person who commits a violation under the Bill is guilty of a Class C felony.

Background

A Class C felony is punishable by confinement for up to 10 years and a fine of at least $1,370 but not more than $13,660.

Assumptions

• The following will not change over the projection period: charge, conviction, and sentencing patterns and trends; prisoner length of stay (LOS); revocation rates; plea bargaining; and other criminal justice system policies and practices.
• County jail data is unavailable. For purposes of this analysis, the marginal cost for county jails is assumed to be $50 per day.
• Conviction data reflects the total number of convictions in adult court, which may include multiple convictions per individual. Not all convictions lead to incarceration, and there may be a delay between conviction and prison admission, which can contribute to differences in totals.
• A six-month delay is assumed from the effective date of the Bill to the date the first offender will enter the correctional system.
• Offender-based convictions are a count of individuals convicted of the same offense. Each offender is counted only once per Iowa Code section, regardless of the number of individual convictions.
• Admissions are a count of individuals newly admitted to the Department of Corrections (DOC) for supervision during a selected time period, based on the most serious offense committed.

Correctional Impact

House File 2535 creates a new criminal offense, and the correctional impact cannot be estimated due to a lack of existing conviction data. Figure 1 shows sentencing estimates to State prison, parole, probation, or Community-Based Corrections (CBC) residential facilities; LOS in months under those supervisions; and supervision marginal costs per day for a Class C felony. Refer to the Legislative Services Agency (LSA) memo addressed to the General Assembly, Cost Estimates Used for Correctional Impact Statements, dated January 12, 2026, for information related to the correctional system.

Figure 1 — Sentencing Estimates and Length of Stay (LOS) in Months

Conviction Offense Class

Percent

Ordered to

State

Prison

FY 2025 Avg

LOS in

Prison (All Releases)

Marginal

Cost Per

Day

Prison

Percent

Ordered to

Probation

FY 2025

Field Avg

LOS on

Probation

Avg Cost

Per Day

Probation

Marginal

Cost Per

Day CBC

Marginal

Cost Per

Day Jail

FY 2025

Field Avg

LOS on

Parole

Marginal

Cost Per

Day Parole

C Felony Persons 89.1% 39.1 $23.07 30.1% 42.8 $8.00 $16.35 $50.00 27.2 $8.00

Minority Impact

House File 2535 creates a new criminal offense. As a result, the Department of Management (DOM) Division of Data, Planning, and Improvement (DPI) cannot use existing data to estimate the minority impact of the Bill. Refer to the LSA memo addressed to the General Assembly, Minority Impact Statements, dated January 12, 2026, for information related to minorities in the criminal justice system.

Fiscal Impact

The fiscal impact of the Bill cannot be determined because the number of convictions cannot be estimated. The average State cost per Class C felony is between $15,000 and $25,200. The estimated impact to the General Fund includes operating costs incurred by the Judicial Branch, the Indigent Defense Fund, and the DOC. The costs would be incurred across multiple fiscal years for prison and parole supervision.

Sources

• Department of Corrections
• Division of Data, Planning, and Improvement, Department of Management
• State Public Defender