ISCC REBUKES INMATE RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS WHILE ALLOWING SECULAR GROUPS TO ASSEMBLE

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According to the chaplain, (even now, well after Governor Little rescinded Idahos' COVID-related State of Emergency) it is ISCC administrators alone who refuse to allow gatherings of prisoners or entry of volunteers into the facility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 administrators, known facts belie the chaplain's denial that he has no hand in the decision making process.

To begin with, only "religious" volunteers are currently prohibited from entering the facility. Outside volunteers are allowed into the ISCC to facilitate and promote secular activities such as [inmate] American Legion meetings and (of all things) yoga instruction! Further, religious gatherings of prisoners is being prohibited even in unit multipurpose areas, all the while secular groups of inmates meet with no more supervision than would be required of religious meetings. Tellingly, each of the groups which are allowed to meet in these areas have "special relationships" with staff (and are described as "privileged"). In response to one prisoner's request for explanation for this diametrically opposed logic, Warden Valley stated that these (secular) groups are "IDOC supported".

Only within the past week or so has (tentative) approval been granted to a couple religious groups to participate in gatherings in the designated outside religious area, and then only those prisoners in the same "cohort" may attend. This leaves the majority of prisoners of the same religious belief (groups) without the ability to worship together. The gatherings will only take place with the availability and direct supervision of the chaplain - neither of which are guaranteed to come to pass.

Compare this with "privileged" American Legion prisoners who, every day - from different cohorts and housing units across the facility - are allowed to congregate twice daily for the raising and lowering of colors (flag) on a pole specially erected for the American Legion inmates in an outside area that cannot be seen by the public, and for the most part, cannot be seen by staff or other prisoners.

These privileged inmates regularly attend weekly gatherings in the same multipurpose rooms denied to religious group activities to visit, eat and make paper flowers to be sold as fund raisers, have sanctioned multi-cohort, bi-monthly get-togethers in the institution visiting room, and have food brought in from the outside for their enjoyment. Ironically, several of these inmates aren't even military veterans, or are otherwise disqualified for membership in the American Legion by their own constitution and bylaws.

In 2020 the IDOC allowed Keefe Commissary Network to started selling "religious" items, from rosaries to salts and oils, runes to tarot cards through the inmate commissary rather than allowing prisoners to order the items from outside sources. Keefe makes a profit, IDOC gets a financial kickback and all is right with the system - according to the state anyway. A few months later, the number of religious items sold directly to prisoners began to decrease and many religious items simply disappeared from the available commissary list altogether, only to later be available exclusively via the chaplain.

Policy, urged by chaplains, now requires prisoners who wish to use their religious items to do so only while in the chapel (despite the fact that the chapel is closed to the general population of prisoners). Further, these same items, once sold directly to prisoners for use in their cells, are still authorized, but are simply no longer sold to prisoners through Keefe commissary.

Here's just a few surprising examples of items which must now be kept and used only in the chapel:

> Storage Container (must be purchased by prisoner from commissary before any other item can be purchased) Note: these are the exact same containers authorized for in-cell use for hobby craft at the ISCC.

> Medicine Wheel (drawn on paper - not larger than 24" x 36").

> Bowl (not plastic - not larger than 2" in diameter, 1" deep - yep... a 2 inch wide, 1 inch deep BOWL - stretching the definition of "bowl" I suppose).

> Salt (kosher / black / lemon / lime - no more than 3 ounces in clear plastic bag) [This, despite the fact that (table) salt is sold directly to prisoners through Keefe at approximately 20 times the price of that required to be kept in the chapel. These exact salts were previously sold directly to prisoners for in-cell use, and many prisoners still retain them].

> Ceremonial garment (Prayer shawls, etc.)

So why is the ISCC preventing religious volunteers from entering the facility? Why are religious volunteers, services and activities being denied while secular activities with the approval of administrators are - and have throughout the pandemic - been allowed? God(s) only know.

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* There are rumors that the RACC/chapel will soon be closed and repurposed. There are no indications where a new chapel may be opened.

** There are rumors that the contract between the IDOC and Three Oaks has expired, been temporary extended, and will not be renewed.