Idaho Prison Blog

In a memorandum posted on prisoner bulletin boards on April 26, 2021, Warden Barlow at the ISCI pronounced that incoming and outgoing mail service to prisoners [at all South Boise Complex prisons, including SICI, ISCI, IMSI, SWBCC and ISCC] would be "delayed" until May 10, 2021 due to the negative impacts of Covid-19 on mailroom staff. Although there was no clarification as to what was meant by "delayed", any delay in processing U.S. Mail is unacceptable, and possibly unlawful - especially where that mail is being sent to and/or from the courts. Many prisoners have pending legal actions which cannot withstand delays as many filings are jurisdictional, meaning that if they are not in on time, they cannot ever be heard by the court. Failure of the mailroom staff to process the documents is of no consequence or concern to the courts. There is a long list of issues with the South Boise Complex Mailroom and the IDOC in general related to inmate mail. IDOC charges prisone...

A disturbance (called a "riot" by some correctional officers) in a dorm housing up to 100 prisoners erupted at about 4:30 pm at the Idaho State Correctional Center on April 10, 2021. While the details of exactly what occurred are still unclear, there were reports of inmates attempting to set fires, break windows and attempts at breaking through the roof. What is clear is that frustrations at the ISCC have been running high as has previously been reported on this site. More than 200 inmates with their hands on their heads were evacuated from H Block by Correctional Officers (COs) to the main building at the ISCC on Saturday afternoon. H Block, a steel sided building resembling an airport hanger, storage shed or garage was used as a warehouse before being converted to a dormitory-style housing unit. In the early 2000's, while operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) (now, CoreCivic) H Block was known as the PIE building, used by Prison Industries for manufacturi...

On December 4, 2020, the IDOC, by and through the Idaho Division of Purchasing, contracted with LexisNexis® for "Access to a legal database of law and public record." In providing a justification for circumventing a competitive  bidding process, the IDOC wrote, "The IDOC is required to provide access to legal resources and it is time prohibitive to conduct a competitive  solicitation." The contract expires November 30, 2023. The IDOC had for decades provided prisoners with access to (basic) books published by Westlaw® (considered an industry leader in legal publications) until the department contracted with LexisNexis to provide similar, though much less annotated and useful reference books at a lesser cost. LexisNexis books were not well received by the inmate population, and were not updated (nor supplements made available) until several months - or in some cases, more than a year - after the books should have been updated. Whether these delays were caused by Lexi...

From early February, 2021, ISCC Unit F 3 had been on a schedule of prisoners being locked in their cells for purposes of "cohorting" - allowing only half the tier out in the dayroom at a time for showering, telephone, commissary ordering, [extremely limited] legal research and privacy while using the toilet. Prior to that, F 3 was locked down for more than a month - with only 20 minutes per day - per cell - allowed out due to quarantine status. On April 5, 2021 F3 prisoners on the tier were all released into the dayroom for the day, no longer "cohorting" - that is, segregating the upper walk from the bottom. That same evening, a prisoner received at the ISCC from a Community Work Center (CWC) was moved directly from the CWC (having been charged with a disciplinary offense) into a cell on F 3. On the morning of April 6, 2021, that newly arrived prisoner, and the prisoner who was already assigned to the (2 man) cell were moved from F 3 to the established Quarantine Un...

In a series of 4 emails sent to all IDOC prisoners on March 26, 2021, Director Josh Tewalt provided a FACT SHEET FOR RECIPIENTS AND CAREGIVERS for 3 of the COVID-19 vaccines which may soon be available for the majority of the inmate population. While the Fact Sheets contained some eyebrow raising facts, such as "there is no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved vaccine to prevent COVID-19", there was another nugget of information contained within the emails that have raised another question. Rather than referring to prisoners as inmates or offenders, the communications from the Director referred to the inmate population as "Residents". A part of his message has been quoted below: "Hi All- I have some great news for you -- this week the Governor expanded the current eligibility for the COVID vaccine to include all of you! We have already vaccinated over 400 residents and are working to obtain additional vaccine so that we can provide the COVID-19 immu...