ISCC Holds (Another) Sham Town Hall Meeting
In one of the most embarrassing and staged spectacles put on by the current ISCC administration in many years, the warden at the ISCC held a so-called "Town Hall" meeting on November 28, 2022 with 4 handpicked (privileged) inmates who are supposed to represent prisoner interests in the areas where they are housed. Previous town hall meetings had several prisoners representing various housing, work, education and other areas of concern, picked/vetted by housing unit sergeants, supervisors, etc. In this instance, prisoners chosen as representatives by unit staff were denied access to the meeting.
The inmates who were allowed to attend the meeting, were in fact all members of the American Legion/Sons of the American Legion at the ISCC, do not represent the interests of anyone other than themselves, their gang-style "organization" and of course, their prison overseers who give them free rein, special privileges and maximum pay for jobs they either shouldn't have, or simply don't do.
That said, here are the "unofficial" notes from the meeting. Punctuation, grammar and readability have been augmented from the original handwritten data/notes. Text in brackets [ ] are not in original, and have been added for clarity, explanation or comment by the editor (Dale Shackelford).
> TV Channels: The channels we have [now] are here to stay for at least the next 4 to 6 months.
[This issue is being looked into and there is some shady stuff going on with contracts, etc. ISCC can't even get local (air) channels to work correctly because they can't set up an antenna/amp correctly.]
> There are no new incentives for inmates that are DOR free.
[DOR stands for Disciplinary Offense Report - prisoners used to receive incentives such as being able to purchase food from outside sources (KFC, pizza, Carl's Jr., etc.). These opportunities are now available only to "privileged" inmates such as those associated with the American Legion, Sons of the American Legion, and the dog program.]
> Keefe has the property contract with IDOC and the only game console available is SEGA.
[Keefe started selling the 16 bit SEGA Genesis Mini console in July, 2020. The game system which contains 42 games and sells for $101.78]
> There are no other TVs available for purchase. Keefe only offers 1 TV for this facility.
[Keefe currently sells a 15" flat screen TV (Amp'd) brand. The TV itself sells for $287.43 and Keefe sells the remote control separately for another $13.79.]
> Requests for religious pamphlets, Daily Bread, etc. should be requested via concern forms to the VRC/Chaplain.
[This is odd in that there is no VRC or Chaplain at the ISCC.]
> Send concern forms to Jessica Tyler-Leekey for changes to the chow hall menu.
[If my memory is correct, this person is the IDOC nutritionist, but - again, if I recall correctly - she is (or was) not a licensed nutritionist.]
> Kite the sergeant for cells or tables to be repainted.
[I'm assuming this means the Housing Sergeant for the area in which a prisoner is housed, and that the table referenced is the 12 x 18 inch "table" mounted to the wall in the cells].
> The warden is looking into a new system similar to ones used at other facilities that would let us use our tablets to order commissary or maybe use them for video visits.
[Idaho prisoners have been told several times that new tablets with these (and other) capabilities would be made available for free to the inmate population from Securus just as has been done recently in Wisconsin and Texas prison systems. None of the "promises" have yet been fulfilled.]
> The warden will look into and follow up at the next meeting about getting our showers fixed, painted or retiled.
[A good cleaning would be a good start, and new shower curtains for F block, tier 3 (as have been installed in tiers 1 and 2) would help too].
> Any issues related HSRs area be sent via concern form to Micah Crawford.
> The institution is aware of issues concerning the JPay kiosk system. It is due to the updated Offender Management System through ATLAS. The bugs should be worked out soon.
[Prisoners who have recently been moved from one facility/housing unit to another have been unable to access the kiosk or order commissary for more than 2 weeks.]
> The facility may be locked down on December 15th due to the execution scheduled on that day.
[ISCC was locked down during the execution of Paul Rhoades in 2011, but not during the execution of Richard Leavitt - and there were no issues related to the execution.]
> The warden is still looking into increasing the spending limit on commissary. He will bring it up at his meeting downtown.
[Who cares? - apparently only those American Legion/Sons that get paid for jobs/work they don't do can afford to spend more than $80 per week.]
> Submit a concern form to Keefe requesting any new items you would like to have added to the list and their rep will submit it at their meeting at IDOC.
[Concerns can also be sent to the Keefe Contract Manager for inclusion on the list - and is a better idea as Keefe tends to "lose" the requests according to Meeting Minutes.]
> JPay stamp costs vary from state to state, depending on the amount of inmates.
[I'm calling B.S. on this - at last check, some states with more prisoners have cheaper e-stamps, others with more prisoners have more expensive e-stamps. The price varies based on the contract between the prison system administrators and JPay, not the population.]
> Extended day room hours will happen as staff increases.
[How 'bout just giving us the day room hours we're already scheduled to have?]
> H Block is the only area that will be clothed in blue jeans and shirts.
[Okay.]
That's it for now. Next time, let's get some answers to questions we're all concerned about - and get real representatives, not Kapo puppets.