THE BABYSITTER IS DEAD - AND ISCC ADMINISTRATORS ARE THE KILLERS
Many years ago, Randy Blades (who was then Warden of the ISCC) described the facility television system as the best babysitter the prison ever had, and placed priority on maintaining the TV/cable system to reduce violence and other problems. Unfortunately, over the past several months, administrators and maintenance staff have killed the TV system at the ISCC, and at the worst possible time.
The television system at the ISCC is, and had been a wreck for years (see SHOULD IDOC REMOVE CRT TVs FROM AUTHORIZED INMATE PROPERTY LISTS? on this site). Most of the equipment is so old there are no replacement parts available, and new ones cannot be sourced. [Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, money for the TV system comes from the Inmate Management Fund, money paid by prisoners through the 25% markup on commissary items, emails and phone calls, not taxpayer dollars]. That money however - thousands of dollars a year - have been squandered.
As described in the previous article on televisions at the ISCC, administrators are still requiring the digital signal from the satellite dish receivers to be converted to analog before sending it through the facility cable system. This would be like trading your top of the line Tesla for a 1964 era golf cart. Why would administrators make such a decision? Well, some say it's because some 5% of the inmates still have analog televisions which are not capable of displaying a digital signal [true, though irrelevant], while others say administrators are scared that prisoners could somehow use the digital television signal to access the internet. That's not possible, though similar things have happened.
In July-August, 2021, ISCC administrators allowed a state of the art high-definition big-screen "smart" TV to be placed in the dayroom on tier 2 of F block - home of the facility "dog program" and the inmates associated with it. While unconfirmed, it is reported that the TV was bought for that specific tier by the Idaho Humane Society - likely with funds donated to them by the public. The fact that the there was nothing wrong with the old TV, no other units in the facility had a smart TV, and staff denial that the IDOC paid for a smart TV seems to corroborate this.
In mid to late August, staff learned that someone had hacked into the facility wifi (provided for guards to use their phones while on duty) with the smart TV, watching movies and programs that would otherwise be unauthorized in the prison setting. It then took several days for the TV to be removed from the tier and replaced by another television. The whereabouts of the smart TV, which must have cost a thousand dollars or more, is unknown.
By the end of the week of September 12, 2021, all the TV channels at ISCC were gone, or virtually unwatchable due to the static. That said, the channels have been going out or were otherwise pretty much unwatchable, requiring a reset of the system/receiver days or weeks later for the past several months. Unfortunately, despite the importance of the television channels in helping to reduce frustrations in the inmate population, the priority in fixing the system is low.
While inmates used to be able to watch television during lockdowns, maybe even watch a movie on the closed-circuit video channel once in awhile, the people who are supposed to maintain and keep the TV system up and running can't seem to figure out which end of the plug goes into the wall socket. Every week, 3 or 4 TV channels "go out", usually on Thursday afternoon, and be out over the weekend. On 9/13/21 channels started dropping one by one. As an explanation, there was word the technicians were working on the system. There have been promises by administrators for the past several years that the system would be upgraded - those promises remain unfulfilled.
The Inmate Management Fund is also tapped thousands of dollars a year by ISCC administrators to rent and show movies over the in-house (closed-circuit) video channel for all prisoners to watch. For months, with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions, the movies have been... less than watchable. Police Academy 2, Dora the Explorer, Pet Sematary (yea, that's how they spell it for the movie) and similar titles, even children's movies from the 80's are aired on the in-house channel for days at a time. There is no justification for the money expended on these videos (and the licensing to play them in the institution) when these are the movies being aired.
As of 10:18 pm MDT on 9/18/21 (as this piece is being written) there are no channels on the inmate cable system that are clear enough to watch - and the inmates are once again locked in their cells (said to be due to a lack of guards showing up to work) despite prisoners having earned the privilege of being out. Even now, as the frustrated inmates bang and kick their doors, the tensions rise over conditions at the ISCC. One prisoner committed suicide in his cell last week, and many others are on edge. Some say they may as well be in the 'hole' as they would have more privileges - including recreation that general popuation inmates are denied as a matter of course. As the lockdowns are becoming longer and more frequent, and the options for something worthwhile to do in the cell grow slimmer, TV channels become more important to keep the inmates more complaisant.
It's time for the ISCC adminstration to change their priorities. Maybe having a quality babysitter would be a good thing - how 'bout The Learning Channel?