Idaho Prison Blog

In a federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition filed February 15, 2023 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (Case No. 23-90086 (CML)), Tehum Care Services, Inc., which did business in Idaho as Corizon Health Services, Corizon Health and Corizon, LLC, - the former contract provider of medical services for Idaho prisoners - admit they owe unknown millions of dollars in unsecured debt to St. Alphonsus and St. Lukes hospitals in Boise. In the Form 204 filed with their bankruptcy petition, Corizon listed St. Alphonsus as the number one unsecured creditor, while St. Luke's is listed as number two, both being owed more than any other creditors. Third on the list is the Capital Regional Medical Center at the University of Missouri, who Corizon admits owing $12M. Number 8 on the list is the Arizona Department of Corrections, who Corizon admits owing $2,615,593. Other entities owed money include law firms, medical service and product providers, laboratories, ...

In a late night email received by IDOC prisoners on February 16, 2023, JPay (and their now parent company Securus) Idaho state prisoners were informed that the reason for months of waiting for their prepaid tablets was, well... read it for yourself (here's the email we received): Dear IDOC Resident - We are aware that many of you are still awaiting tablet orders placed in November, December and even early January. Our company, Securus, recently went through a warehouse reorganization and the timeliness of our tablet order shipmentswas affected. This warehouse reorganization has been mostly completed and your orders are still on track for shipment. Your tablet orders are a priority for us, and we are diligently working to get them shipped to your facility. We appreciate your patience on this matter and apologize for any inconvience (Editor's Note: Yea, they spelled that wrong) it has caused. Thank you, Your JPay/ Securus Team As you can see, the JPay/Securus team is right behind...

In a January 31, 2023 memorandum recently made available to prisoners who use a facility-supplied laptop to access legal materials and files provided by state prosecutors, attorneys general and courts on electronic media (flash drives, DVDs, etc.), ISCC Deputy Warden McKay and (IDOC) Access to Courts Coordinator Sandi Frelly write, among other things, that "... Use of the laptop is restricted to only viewing legal materials. Any other use of the laptop may result in loss of data, materials, or use of the laptop." Although on its face, placing these restrictions on a state-owned laptop, (known as 'legal laptops") seems reasonable, one must consider other matters involved before jumping to that conclusion. First, although the state owns the computer, they refuse to allow (most) prisoners to purchase their own systems, so [we] must use the state-owned laptop. Second, in some situations, electronic files are the only media in which prisoners may receive their legal docum...

########## NOTE: I am familiar with the information presented below not from having participated in illegal or prohibited activities myself, but from having worked in an area of the ISCC for 2 years where the brew was created, discovered and confiscated virtually every day by staff who often discussed these issues in my presence, as well as current activities and conversations with and between officers. Further, some of my family are or have been moonshiners in and around Harlan County Kentucky, and have been for generations, so the process is not a secret. ########## In the past two weeks, teams of guards at the ISCC have conducted hundreds (if not thousands) of searches of prisoner housing and common areas for the ever-present (and referred to by its racially insensitive nickname) "squawky" - i.e., homemade alcohol, also known in other parts of the country as "hooch", "pruno" and "toilet whisky" (the latter because prisoners were known to hide ...

For months, JPay kiosks at the ISCC have been malfunctioning, and despite requests to both JPay and the IDOC for repairs, the system continues to prevent prisoners from syncing their tablets. The system operates like this (well, it's supposed to operate like this...): First order of business is that the tablet must be synchronized (sync'd) to one of the two wall-mounted kiosks on the unit/tier where the prisoner is housed. This is done by plugging the tablet into the kiosk using a micro USB cord that is permanently attached to the kiosk using a mechanical fastener. Once the kiosk recognizes the tablet and security credentials are created/verified, firmware on the tablet is updated, and certain applications (apps) are downloaded from the kiosk onto the tablet. The tablet is then good to go (in theory anyway). Due to a built-in mortality script, the tablet must by sync'd every so often to the kiosk or it will lock, preventing access even by the owner. Sometimes, the tablet ha...

At 12:45 pm on Thursday February 2, 2023 (unbeknownst to me as I had on headphones per policy) approximately 25 guards entered Unit F3 at the ISCC, opened cell doors and ordered all prisoners to go to "recreation". As going to recreation is traditionally voluntary (and cancelled more often than not due to staff shortages) and in the winter, usually involved going to the indoor gymnasium or weight room, most prisoners donned basketball shorts, t-shirts and little else. Only when they were forced outside into the snow-covered yard area did they realize the truth, and for those who were not dressed for temperatures in the mid-30's (with light winds making it feel like the low 30's) it was only then did they realize their mistake. To be clear, a few guards did tell some prisoners they would be going outside, but for some reason, that fact was not communicated to everyone. In my case, a guard came to my cell and said "If you go to rec, make sure to take your I.D....