Idaho Prison Blog

It is Thanksgiving morning (2018) as I write this - and lest there be any doubt, there are many things for which I am thankful and eternally grateful - but last nights raid by corrections officers and staff at the ISCC (reminiscent of black-uniformed, jack booted storm troopers) bent on confiscating any state-issued food under the guise of preventing Thanksgiving alcohol making will certainly leave a streak of resentment and sadness. (Oh, and it takes days or weeks to make alcohol from fruit, etc.) OK, I get it, they have an interest in preventing inmates from consuming alcohol, but most of the food they confiscated was food they not only allow us to have in our cells, they even deliver it to us in the housing units. The state giveth, the state taketh away I suppose.  An orange or an apple, a piece of bread, peanut butter and jelly - provided just hours before - ripped from our grasps and our cells and thrown into trash bags - hauled away as garbage while so many people in the worl...

In a recent blog, I stated that institutional staff are able to communicate with individual prisoners via the JPay email system - at no cost to the state or prisoner. While technically correct, it has come to my attention that institutional staff do not have DIRECT access to the system - but that facility staff send emails to specific prisoners for such matters as appointments, etc. by routing the emails through the IDOC Central Office. I was called "gullible" by Warden Christensen on this matter during a conversation wherein I cited to him the date and time of emails directed to specific inmates at the ISCC to remind them of Town Hall meetings. In a Concern Form, I again cited the inmate, date and time stamp of the email, only to receive from him a vehement denial in writing that he could send JPay emails and has never done so. He may be telling the truth, but SOMEBODY at ISCC authored the emails - and it proves that the process IS available for use in providing Notice of ce...

In response to the lawsuit in SHACKELFORD v. McKAY, Ada County (Idaho) Case No. CV-OC-16-05583, the IDOC agreed to amend a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to require staff to notify prisoners whenever an electronic communication or ECM (email, videogram or photo attachment) was censored. The IDOC simply repurposed a document used by IDOC mailrooms to notify prisoners of censored or confiscated incoming (postal) mail (Attachment to IDOC SOP 503.02.01.001). Despite the SOP change and requirements, staff rarely, if ever, properly or timely notify prisoners when ECMs are censored or confiscated. What IS happening is that any time there is an ECM confiscation, an electronic communication of the fact is usually sent to the intended recipient prisoner which reads: "HELLO [inmate name / number], AN EMESSAGE THAT WAS SENT TO YOU HAS BEEN CENSORED AND WILL NOT BE DELIVERED. NO REFUNDS ARE PROVIDED FOR CENSORED MAIL." This communication provides no practical notice or useful informat...