Idaho Prison Blog

In an agreement signed on January 22, 2020 by the IDOC and CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA) approximately 1,000 Idaho prisoners will be transferred to the Kit Carson facility near Burlington, Colorado to serve their sentences. In statements made by the IDOC Director Josh Tewalt on the KTVB Channel 7 program "Viewpoint" on Sunday (1/26/2020), prisoners who have longer sentences, and are medium custody will be targeted for transfer. CoreCivic, the same company that was sued by the IDOC for falsifying records concerning thousands of hours of short staffing, intentionally creating an unsafe environment where inmates 'ran the asylum' and where video of staff watching as one prisoner beat another nearly to death at the Idaho Correctional Center (dubbed Gladiator School by inmates and the press) south of Boise is still available on the web, settled the lawsuit with the state for approximately $1M is now touted by Tewalt as the saving grace f...

Preparing to file a lawsuit involves a number of steps - the first being the identification of issues, known as "claims" before beginning to exhaust administrative or other remedies. Below is a list of claims that Dale Shackelford has compiled in preparing to file suit against the IDOC. Shackelford is also researching the matter of delays in prisoner emails, both incoming and outgoing where IDOC SOP allows up to 5 days for prisoners to be notified of confiscations, and 10 days for review of the confiscation by investigators. Snail-mail must be delivered within 24 hours, not including holidays or weekends. There is absolutely no legitimate reason to censor email where there is no such censorship of USPS delivered or sent mail (except in certain circumstances) and is required to be sealed prior arriving at the mailroom. Indeed, Shackelford can document several instances where a censored (confiscated) email and/or photo was printed, sent and received by prisoners within a matter...

There was a line in a movie once that started, "You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to cable television...". While IDOC prisoners may not have a right to television, most are allowed to purchase their own TVs (at a price that can only be described as criminal) and the facilities provide the signals (cable or satellite) - paid for by kickbacked funds prisoners are overcharged on commissary goods, telephones and emails - not a cent of tax dollars are being used. At the ISCC, there are a limited number of satellite receivers used to provide programming, but unlimited opportunities for expansion. Many of these channels are religious programming, and there are 4 purely sports channels, not including the major networks that regularly air various games and sports analysis. There are also 2 channels available which are simply not being used (see a list of the channels available below). Despite Governor Little's focus on the importance of education in Idaho, an...

In the time Chris Johnson has been Corizon's Health Services Administrator (HSA) at the ISCC, several medical staff have either resigned or transferred reportedly due to his "style" of oversight, including asking, and at times requiring trained medical personnel to lie to prisoners about availability of medical equipment and services and either suggesting or asking staff to falsify documents - despite Mr. Johnson having no licence to practice medicine. In one instance, a medical "provider" (a physician's assistant or PA) informed ISCC prisoner Dale Shackelford that despite his medical need, he would not be granted a medical memo authorizing a "mattress topper," effectively a mattress pad designed to alleviate hot spots and to cushion areas which prevented Shackelford from getting more than a few hours of sleep per night. Per the PA (who no longer works at the ISCC) this refusal was passed down from Chris Johnson who stated that no inmates were allo...

After a short hiatus, Idaho Prison Blog is again in full swing, bringing you more news, information and links to other sites that you, friends and family can use to keep up with the goings on at the ISCC, the IDOC and beyond. Remember, you can subscribe to this site for free - just click on the SUBSCRIBE button to be notified any time a new article is posted. You can also comment on any articles, past or present, or submit your own posts. You can also suggest other sites that may be helpful and we'll add a link (after we look at them of course). If you find any problems with this site, or any links, please report them to the site administrator or contact me directly using one of the methods available in the sidebar below. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season. Dale Shackelford