Idaho Prison Blog

Recently, I posted an article on this site titled PRISON IS PRISON - BY ANY OTHER NAME. Thinking about this a bit further, I realized it's not only the Place which is objectified and politicized, it's the people as well. In that article, I wrote: "In almost every discussion about prisons in "unfriendly" nations, the dialogue is about "political" prisoners, though the official position in the US is that there are no political prisoners in American prisons - only criminals. Despite the dialogue, the same holds true in foreign lands, with those governments too claiming that only duly convicted criminals populate their prisons." An American female basketball player is caught red-handed with drugs in an international airport and a former US Marine is duly and legally convicted of espionage (and other crimes) in Russian courts, yet the american populace allows the Biden administration and the media to characterize those prisoners as upstanding citizens w...

For more than a decade, Three Oaks [Ministries] has been contracted to provide Volunteer Religious Coordinators (aka, Chaplains) for IDOC facilities around the state - paid for by Inmate Management Fund (IMF) money. According to an email received by IDOC prisoners on September 13, 2022 (presented in its entirety below) the era of 3 Oaks will soon be coming to an end. (NOTE: This information was prophesized in my August 2022 post ISCC REBUKES INMATE RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS WHILE ALLOWING SECULAR GROUPS TO ASSEMBLE on this site.) Before 3 Oaks, IDOC facilities hired individual "chaplains" to serve as coordinators for religious activities. This changed in the early 2000s when some IDOC facilities contracted with the Idaho Chaplains Corp., a fly-by-night business hurriedly formed by a former chaplain who hurriedly resigned from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI) (and his friend) once it became known that the IDOC was looking for a company/vendor to fill the facility chapl...

For more than a decade, the television system at the ISCC has been described as a hole into which money, equipment and time seem simply to disappear. With the system outdated and getting worse by the day, someone needs to question where all the money spent on it is going. In an article published on this site in late September of 2021 (THE BABYSITTER IS DEAD - AND ISCC ADMINISTRATORS ARE THE KILLERS) I noted that administrators were telling prisoners that the system was being worked on and upgraded. Since that time, a few of the problem channels have indeed stopped dropping out, though the majority have either not gotten any better, or have actually gotten worse. In a Concern Form addressed to the new Warden at the ISCC (Randy Valley III), I asked when the channels that were still dropping out would be fixed. The reply to the Concern Form, received more than a week later from a secretary, told me that technicians were waiting on parts to fix the problems. Once parts were installed (per ...

Since early 2020 the facility Chaplain, officially known as the Volunteer/Religious Coordinator (VRC), has kept the institution, including the chapel (officially known as the Religious Activities Coordination Center or RACC*) virtually religion-free. Indeed, the restrictions on religious activities reduce the workload on the chaplain by more than 80%, yet the contractor/vendor (Three Oaks**) that provides chaplaincy services to the IDOC continues to be paid 100% from the Inmate Management Fund. According to the chaplain, (even now, well after Governor Little rescinded Idahos' COVID-related State of Emergency) it is ISCC administrators alone who refuse to allow gatherings of prisoners or entry of volunteers into the facility for religious purposes due to Covid and (unidentified) security concerns. While the chaplain says that the decisions to restrict access to the chapel, deny religious services and to deny facility entry to all religious volunteers is totally the fault of prison a...

On August 15, 2022 Idaho prisoners received an email from IDOC Director Josh Tewalt informing us that college courses are now available to some prisoners, and will soon be available to all. While there are already some college-level classes available in most facilities, they do not provide credits. The new courses seem to be those that will lead to a degree through accredited universities. Whether the IDOC will follow through with the program that by all accounts will help reduce recidivism, or change the rules in the middle of the game as they are known to do (remember the covid vaccination lies they told) remains to be seen. Here is the email we received on the college courses - typos and all: COLLEGE COURSES ORFFERED Message from the Director: Hello All, Im writing to let you know about an exciting new program that we are piloting, which promises to help more of you get set up for success in the community. Next week, close to 50 residents from ICIO and PWCC will begin taking college...

In April 2021 IDOC administrators banned books from the most common sources (see the [grammatically incorrect] posting ALL AMAZON PRODUCTS FORBIDDEN FROM IDAHO STATE CORRECTIONAL CENTER on this site). On July 13, 2022, Chad Page, the Chief of Prisons sent an email to all prisoners expanding the list of approved vendors for books. Although the new memo left out one of the previously approved vendors (Thrift Books), property staff have verified that Thrift Books is still an approved vendor. Below is the email/memo as provided to the prisoner population on July 13, 2022: Resident Population - All Facilities Re: Approved Vendors for Books Recently we completed a review of the vendors we had approved for books. We have received a lot of feedback that the vendor list was too short and needed expansion. Due to that feedback, we have researched vendors for books with the objective of increasing the options available. After review the following vendors have been approved: > Edward R Hamilton...

According to government sources, the Idaho Department of Correction needs hundreds more officers to be at a full force, requiring additional hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to be ripped from the hands and wallets of struggling taxpayers. As the Idaho inmate population increases, even more guards will be needed. On the other hand, maybe there are too many guards as it is. For years, administrators at the ISCC have allowed their special pet (privileged) inmates - even those with fixed life sentences - to work and play in sensitive areas without direct staff supervision. When pressed, staff [attempt] to justify these blatant security and policy breaches by arguing these inmates are being directly supervised "on camera", despite some of those areas having no cameras, or areas that cameras cannot "see". Further, according to some concerned staff, nobody knows who is doing the supervising, or to what extent - if any at all - there is actual video supervision. Ta...

On April 17, 2020 IDOC Director Josh Tewalt emailed the Idaho prisoner population that IDOC would subsidize part of the cost of calls, email stamps, and other avenues of communication. Days later, the cost of estamps dropped from (the best package price of) 32¢ to 16¢ each. According to the Director, the reduced rates were to facilitate more communication between prisoners and those in the outside world. I guess these communications are no longer a priority as once again, JPay (and the IDOC) have raised the price of estamps, without notice. Sometime after mid-May, 2022, in the middle of the night and without a word, the price of estamps nearly doubled. Whether this increase is a result of JPay raising prices or the IDOC no longer "subsidizing" the reduced rate is unknown. (Note: "subsidizing' in this context means simply that the IDOC didn't take their full 40% commission on each stamp sold.) In either case, the result is the same. Estamps, which have absolutely ...

FROM: Christine Starr Chief of Staff DATE: 06/23/2022 Hello IDOC Residents, Ada County is now at a HIGH LEVEL for COVID community transmission, as such, effective (6/23/22) at 6:00 a.m., masks are required in the following facilities: ISCC, SBWCC, IMSI, ISCI, SICI, TV CRC, and EB CRC. I know this is not welcome news, but please know that with the consent of our State Epidemiologists, we will revise the mask requirement as quickly as it is safe to do so. Additionally, the following restrictions are now in place: Visitation for the facilities identified above is suspended until further notice Testing remains required for: > Symptomatic staff and residents > RDU > Moving an individual from their cohort or from one facility to another > Releasing an individual into the community Classes and treatment may still occur within cohorts, as long as there is proper spacing and masks are being worn by all participants The quarantine/isolation protocols for crisis staffing remain in pla...

On June 22, 2022 prisoners at the ISCC learned that the institution will be going back to Covid-19 protocols the morning of June 23, meaning that prisoners will be segregated (or "cohorted") - in this instance - by housing unit. This also means that recreation, education, programming and inmate work details will be restricted or cancelled altogether. A moratorium on inter-unit cell (housing) moves will also be in effect. Mask mandates for both staff and prisoners alike are also reinstated. That's what is SUPPOSED to happen. Although there has been no memorandum posted, email received or other official notification of the status change, there was said to have been a news report on KIVI TV Channel 6 on the evening of June 22 that visitation in all IDOC facilities has been suspended. The visitation suspension (until at least July 9, 2022) has been verified through an independent source. On the morning of June 23, it became somewhat clear that there had been some movement/coh...