Idaho Prison Blog

On December 9, 2017 several news outlets in Boise, as well as the Associated Press (AP) reported that the IDOC intends to house Idaho prisoners in out of state prisons as soon as March 2018. With all the problems Idaho has had with housing prisoners in out of state facilities, and with private prison contractors, one must ask whether this announcement is an effort to force the Idaho Legislature to allocate funds to construct more prisons within the state to house its convicts. The timing of the announcement indicates that it probably is. Idaho's gubernatorial election takes place in November, 2018 - and with current Governor Butch Otter not seeking re-election, the newly elected governor may or may not take well to the political fallout of having Idaho prisoners being housed out of state. With the Director of the IDOC serving at the pleasure of the governor, who's to say that current Director Henry Atencio - who is pushing for the moves - will maintain his position when the new...

Most prisoners, especially those who have a history of abusing specific types of drugs, have atrocious dental hygiene - so bad in fact that it is potentially deadly. Unfortunately, there are limited avenues or opportunities to correct this while in IDOC prisons. While most people resist seeing a dentist, inside or out, prisoners at ISCC (and other IDOC prison facilities) must first submit an HSR or Health Services Request (with the mandatory signature line authorizing a charge to your account for a co-pay as authorized by the IDOC) with the contract medical provider Corizon Health, Inc. out of Tennessee. Once the HSR is submitted, the prisoner, usually within 24 hours, will be called to the facility medical department to be evaluated by some sort of medical assistant. Looking into one's mouth and observing that there is an infection, broken tooth or other malady is generally the norm, with the possible obligatory "ooh's and ahh's" associated therewith. Once tr...

It's tough not being able to share the holidays with friends and family, but just as you might record your festivities this year to send to other loved ones away from home, you can share your moments via video to IDOC prisoners too. Now, I don't mean to sound like a commercial advertisement for JPay, and I'm not much of a fan of the company, but they are the only game in town, so we use what we have. By going to www.jpay.com, you can download a free app to your iPhone or Android phone (not available for computers) that will allow you to send 30 second "videograms" to prisoners using (2) estamps (sold via the site). Following the instructions they provide, you can send up to 30 seconds of video (with audio) at a time - with no limit on the number of videos you can send. Tell them "Hello" show them the special dinner you've laid out - introduce them to relatives young and old, even complain about their favorite uncle doing his "pull my finger...

On Wednesday December 6, 2017 the delivery of KFC chicken to the ISCC highlighted the day, with ($10) 5 piece containers filling the normally stale air with the smells of the tasty fowl as if at home on a winter day. Unfortunately however, there must be a whole bunch of legless chickens running around out there somewhere. Out of more than 60 boxes of chicken delivered to the unit I live on alone, there was not a single breast amongst them - maybe it's the IDOC policy against nudity (thou shall see no breast) gone terribly wrong? Granted, there was no promise that there would be a chicken breast nestled in the bucket, tender and juicy just waiting for me to strip the flesh from it's bones, but in past chicken fund-raisers, there was at least one breast, front and center - proudly poking through the legs and thighs. Not this time though. Though not at all a condemnation, I have to say that the chicken was not up to the usual KFC standards, and this was likely due to the number of...

The objectives in housing prisoners in any prison is (or should be) the safety and security of the public, staff and prisoners. Reducing instances of violence in prison is paramount in achieving these goals, yet some Idaho prison administrators maintain programs and activities which not only promote violence between prisoners, they disregard proven means to reduce it. Whether this is due to technological illiteracy, old-guard attitudes or just plain stubborness, it is time to leap into the 21st century in Idaho prisons.  For many years, Idaho prisons have allowed (some) prisoners to play any number of video games in crowded communal areas (dayrooms) using older Playstation 2 gaming consoles and individual games having been donated by outside sources. Despite the many and obvious benefits to allowing Idaho prisoners to purchase personal gaming consoles, IDOC administrators resist the option, much to the detriment of education, safety and security of facilities. There are never enoug...

Published by the same people who publish PRISON LEGAL NEWS, Criminal Legal News (CLN) recently arrived in my cell as a sample copy (anyone who subscribes to PLN should have received the sample copy of CLN) and looking it over briefly the first night, it seemed to fill a niche. Reading it more the next day, I think the magazine can be powerful enough to literally open doors to some prisoners still fighting their convictions. Let's hope the content expands as they get settled in as it is a bit pricey for a one-year subscription at $48 per year (for prisoners). Go to www.criminallegalnews.org for other pricing and subscription options. I have mad respect (as the kids say these days) for Paul Wright, publisher of PLN not only for the work he did in creating PLN from his cell in a Washington (state) prison, but for all the things he has done since. He has never laid down - never stopped to tie his shoes while running towards a problem or capitulated to the government because something...

For more than 2 years, the South Boise Complex mailroom (and quite possibly IDOC prison mailrooms in other parts of the state) have been ripping (adhesive backed) postage stamps from most incoming prisoner mail/envelopes under the guise of security, but is there a more - illegitimate and darker reason? To begin, the pretext that postage stamps are removed in an effort to prevent drugs from being placed under the stamps as a means of introducing these substances into the prison is ridiculous - not because it couldn't be the reason, but because of the fact that staff do not remove other adhesive labels such as return address, airmail and other labels and stickers from the envelopes. Further, there seems to be no search of the area where the flap of the envelope meets the the main body, more than 5 times the surface area on a standard #10 envelope than on a standard postage stamp. So why would staff at the South Boise Complex mailroom go through the trouble? Well, the answer may lie i...