IDAHO INMATES ONCE AGAIN HEADED TO COLORADO
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 for Idaho's overcrowding problem. "We have had good experiences with them at Kit Carson, even after the controversy here in Idaho."
Despite the public face and statements by Tewalt on Sunday, it is actually the intent of the IDOC to move prisoners with a history of and current behavioral problems to Kit Carson, including gang members and those with serious medical and mental health issues. Due to "flexible placement criteria", (translation: terms of the new contract) Tewalt wrote in a January 22, 2020 email that both medium AND close (maximum) custody, as well as those with medical and mental conditions are PRIORITIZED for the moves anticipated to begin as early as May or June of 2020. Effectively, IDOC is moving their biggest problem prisoners to Burlington - but at what financial cost to Idaho taxpayers?
In the next piece on this issue, we'll look at what it will cost to send and keep the highest security Idaho prisoners in a Colorado prison (nobody thinks CoreCivic is a charitable organization do they?), and whether or not Idaho actually has the legal authority to send prisoners - who have been sentenced to the custody of the Board of Corrections - to another jurisdiction.
Until then, be well, subscribe to this page (it's free!) and if you have any thoughts on this or any other issue, please leave a comment.
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 for Idaho's overcrowding problem. "We have had good experiences with them at Kit Carson, even after the controversy here in Idaho."
Despite the public face and statements by Tewalt on Sunday, it is actually the intent of the IDOC to move prisoners with a history of and current behavioral problems to Kit Carson, including gang members and those with serious medical and mental health issues. Due to "flexible placement criteria", (translation: terms of the new contract) Tewalt wrote in a January 22, 2020 email that both medium AND close (maximum) custody, as well as those with medical and mental conditions are PRIORITIZED for the moves anticipated to begin as early as May or June of 2020. Effectively, IDOC is moving their biggest problem prisoners to Burlington - but at what financial cost to Idaho taxpayers?
In the next piece on this issue, we'll look at what it will cost to send and keep the highest security Idaho prisoners in a Colorado prison (nobody thinks CoreCivic is a charitable organization do they?), and whether or not Idaho actually has the legal authority to send prisoners - who have been sentenced to the custody of the Board of Corrections - to another jurisdiction.
Until then, be well, subscribe to this page (it's free!) and if you have any thoughts on this or any other issue, please leave a comment.