Idaho Prison Blog

Since early 2020 the facility Chaplain, officially known as the Volunteer/Religious Coordinator (VRC), has kept the institution, including the chapel (officially known as the Religious Activities Coordination Center or RACC*) virtually religion-free. Indeed, the restrictions on religious activities reduce the workload on the chaplain by more than 80%, yet the contractor/vendor (Three Oaks**) that provides chaplaincy services to the IDOC continues to be paid 100% from the Inmate Management Fund. According to the chaplain, (even now, well after Governor Little rescinded Idahos' COVID-related State of Emergency) it is ISCC administrators alone who refuse to allow gatherings of prisoners or entry of volunteers into the facility for religious purposes due to Covid and (unidentified) security concerns. While the chaplain says that the decisions to restrict access to the chapel, deny religious services and to deny facility entry to all religious volunteers is totally the fault of prison a

On August 15, 2022 Idaho prisoners received an email from IDOC Director Josh Tewalt informing us that college courses are now available to some prisoners, and will soon be available to all. While there are already some college-level classes available in most facilities, they do not provide credits. The new courses seem to be those that will lead to a degree through accredited universities. Whether the IDOC will follow through with the program that by all accounts will help reduce recidivism, or change the rules in the middle of the game as they are known to do (remember the covid vaccination lies they told) remains to be seen. Here is the email we received on the college courses - typos and all: COLLEGE COURSES ORFFERED Message from the Director: Hello All, Im writing to let you know about an exciting new program that we are piloting, which promises to help more of you get set up for success in the community. Next week, close to 50 residents from ICIO and PWCC will begin taking college

In April 2021 IDOC administrators banned books from the most common sources (see the [grammatically incorrect] posting ALL AMAZON PRODUCTS FORBIDDEN FROM IDAHO STATE CORRECTIONAL CENTER on this site). On July 13, 2022, Chad Page, the Chief of Prisons sent an email to all prisoners expanding the list of approved vendors for books. Although the new memo left out one of the previously approved vendors (Thrift Books), property staff have verified that Thrift Books is still an approved vendor. Below is the email/memo as provided to the prisoner population on July 13, 2022: Resident Population - All Facilities Re: Approved Vendors for Books Recently we completed a review of the vendors we had approved for books. We have received a lot of feedback that the vendor list was too short and needed expansion. Due to that feedback, we have researched vendors for books with the objective of increasing the options available. After review the following vendors have been approved: > Edward R Hamilton