Several Bible colleges used the site before the state government bought it that year; it served as an orphanage and then as a home for children.
[6] Prior to the campus's closure The Des Moines Register had run a series about the problems at the facility.
[2] In 2013 the office of the Attorney General of Iowa attempted to redact information regarding abuse at this facility from a report.
[3] As of December 2014 the Liberty Baptist Church in Marshalltown was considering opening a Bible college for Chin refugees from Myanmar.
As of July 2014, of 33 girls accused by the State of Iowa of committing crimes who would have been candidates for the IJH, most were placed in detention centers or youth shelters awaiting a longer-term assignment.
[5] In February 2014 Palmer stated in a Senate Human Resources Committee meeting that there was a need for a secure housing facility for delinquent girls.
[16] A group of students addressed an audience at the Iowa Statehouse in January 2013, speaking in favor of the IJH.
[18] David R. Nagle, a Waterloo resident and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, worked pro bono to assist the group.
[20] In response Branstad stated on Iowa Public Television's "Iowa Press" that he included budgetary funds to provide remedial education for 117 former students who he stated had received below par education at the IJH, and that the students were better served in their new settings.
[22] In January 2014 Danny Homan, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Iowa Council 61, the largest union of state employees in Iowa; along with four state legislators from the Democratic Party, filed a lawsuit against Governor Branstad and DHS head Charles Palmer in Polk County District Court in order to get an injunction to stop the closure of IJH.
[13] In February 2014 Scott Rosenberg, the district judge of Polk County, ordered the facility to reopen.