IDAHO PRISON "GLADIATOR SCHOOL" BACK IN SESSION
For years, the Idaho Correctional Center (now the ISCC) was synonymous with inmate-on-inmate violence, staff indifference, favoritism, and corruption. The press dubbed the prison facility "Idaho's Gladiator School", but when the state took over the prison from private prison contractor Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in 2014, things began to settle down a bit, but lately, the facility is once again turned to mayhem as the daily norm.
Today, administrative favoritism for specific inmates has raised the level of frustration of line staff and prisoners alike at the ISCC to record levels. "Investigative" lockdowns (which are in fact nothing more than attempts at creating peer pressure to prevent fights on units) are bringing some areas of the institution to a boiling point, and most staff love it. "This is our bread and butter,"' recently commented one female officer who had just responded to a fight where pepper spray was deployed. "Keeps us from being bored."
On June 28, 2021 a number of drunken belligerent inmates on F Block were grouped up, creating disturbances that were simply ignored by staff. As was expected, a verbal confrontation between 2 of the inmates ensued and a third prisoner grabbed one of the guys by the shirt collar from behind and pulled him to the floor. The inmate with whom he had been arguing then started punching and kicking the man on the floor, even to the point where the guy defecated on himself. Staff never intervened during the fight, despite the incident being in full view. Later that night, the 2 inmates were taken to the "hole" for the fight. Two days later, the inmate who beat the guy while he was down was released and returned to F Block as an "essential" worker. He is also one of the "administratively-preferred" inmates.
As a CCA facility, an investigation by the state found, among other atrocities, that private prison staff allowed some inmates to determine housing assignments for others in an effort to prevent violence. The investigation also revealed that some of these inmates received special dispensation, food and other considerations for maintaining the relative peace throughout the facility. When the state stepped in, [then] Warden Randy Blades (mostly) put an end to those activities, wrested control of the prison from the inmates, and placed it back in the hands of staff. Once Warden Blades left ISCC, things began swing back the other way.
Once again, ISCC administrators allow specific inmates special privileges - including, but not limited to the ability to go to move about the facility during times all other prisoners are locked down, allow these inmates to work and be paid for several jobs (while prisoners who have no job wait months or years for employment), provide these inmates food from the outside several times per month, and allow the inmates - in violation of their own security policies - work and socialize in areas without supervision by staff. Some of these inmates have also been given authority to change housing and work assignments of other prisoners, schedule priority medical treatment for friends and get paid for hours they do not work - all with the knowedge, backing and authority of ISCC administrators.
Official documents received through public records disclosures show ISCC staff purchase hundreds of dollars of goods and services every month without detailing what it is they purchase, source of the purchase or disposition of the item purchased. Other documents received through the public records act shows actual receipts from fast food retailers for items like burritos and burgers and pizzas purchased weekly by administrators for privileged inmates.
According to reports by administrators, more than 60 security staff positions at the ISCC are unfilled. This too was an issue IDOC investigators found unacceptable. When it was learned that CCA not only left security posts unmanned, but covered up the fact they were so short-staffed in reports to the IDOC, CCA was heavily fined. Today, staff shortages at ISCC are causing some staff to work mandatory overtime.
While some staff who have resigned as officers were lured away by jobs with better pay, fewer hours, better working conditions or just the ability to make more money through unemployment, many are not hesitant to say they can no longer stand to work under the current administration at the ISCC. Some departing officers point to the dangerous conditions created by increasing inmate frustrations, administrators allowing certain inmates to wield undue authority (even over staff in some cases), the blatant disregard of policy and hypocrisy of ranking staff.
On July 2, 2021, 2 inmates on F Block beat another inmate for several minutes in the day room. The victim ran, falling several times into a fetal position then struggling to his feet, trying to make it to the door as he was pummeled and kicked in the head and face, screaming for help from one end of the day room to the other - in full view of staff. Only when he reached the door did staff intervene, deploying pepper spray and taking all 3 inmates into custody.
Despite the "investigation" lockdown of the entire tier (designed, it is said, to prevent communications and interactions between prisoners while investigators determine who was involved in the beating and why it happened) which continues over the holiday weekend, privileged inmates are still allowed to move about at their pleasure, even between tiers. Logic dictates then that the lockdown of the other 80 or so prisoners on the tier, who weren't involved, is therefore unnecessary.
"Working in a prison without fights,"' someone once said, "is like watching NASCAR without the wrecks - it's just no fun."