Idaho Prison Blog

Imagine going to the doctor and being tested for AIDS, HIV or some other life-threatening disease, only to have the doctor inform you that he cannot tell you the results of the test. Imagine the anger, worry and the anguish you and your family would go through - the not knowing. In what can be described only as ridiculous, prisoners at the ISCC are being informed that they have no right to know the results of COVID-19 tests performed on them. This means that prisoners who have been tested, in most cases, have no idea whether or not they have actually contracted the virus, or might still have the disease. This is leading to frustration, anger and resentment which will certainly come to a head in the days or weeks to come as more prisoners are quarantined without even knowing whether or not they are, or ever were sick. Idaho law actually allows prison officials to keep secret all records of a prisoner - including medical records - even from the prisoner him/herself. The statute (Idaho Co...

For months, hundreds of IDOC prisoners have been locked down to various degrees due to the coronavirus pandemic. In an effort to mitigate the frustrations associated with the changes made throughout the system and provide mandatory access to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), IDOC administrators have worked with JPay to provide prisoners with educational videos, tablet-based games, the ability to download videograms to tablets over Wifi, and most importantly, the ability to review IDOC policies and procedures. Unfortunately, most prisoners - even those who have tablets - do not have access to these apps. Prisoners who own tablets which are more than a year old have complained to JPay for quite some time that games they have purchased are not available to play on their tablet. When the educational videos were introduced, they too were unavailable to these prisoners and no amount of complaining has helped. JPay denies that these media won't download and they are correct, the softw...

Hello everyone, Buckle up, this is going to be a long update. I've heard that there are a lot of unanswered questions that people have and its causing folks to make assumptions and fill in the gaps with their own version. I want to lay out for you what is happening systemwide and provide the reasons why some things are happening in some places but not in others. Where do we have people with COVID-19? As of today, we have people positive with COVID-19 at ISCC, SICI, SAWC, Nampa CRC, Treasure Valley CRC, and East Boise CRC. We do not yet have known positives at NICI, ICIO, PWCC, SBWCC, ISCI, IMSI, CAPP, or the Idaho Falls CRC. What's the plan for testing? This one is complicated. It's important to understand that our capacity to test is currently limited by how quickly our partner agencies can collect and process samples. It doesn't make any sense to rush to get samples from everyone if processing will take days or weeks, so timing is key. The VA has agreed to process up ...

In an IDOC news release, prison officials provided the following information regarding the death of a prisoner while in custody: BOISE, July 29, 2020 -- With great sadness, the Idaho Department of Correction reports the death of an incarcerated person hospitalized with COVID-19. On July 22, 2020, Frank Dawson Conover, 66, was transported from Idaho State Correctional Center to a Boise hospital for emergency treatment. While at the hospital, he tested positive for COVID-19 while being treated for other serious underlying health conditions. Conover was pronounced dead at the hospital at 4:49 am, July 29th. ______________ While the news release provided factual information, the rest of the story must be read from between the lines. Based on the news release, it is clear that this prisoner had not been tested for COVID-19 at the ISCC, which is significant in that because of his (stated) age, this prisoner was (or should have been) housed in H Block where prisoners over the age of 60 and th...