Idaho Prison Blog

Keefe Commissary Network (KCN), the vendor who holds the contract with the IDOC to exclusively provide commissary services to Idaho prisoners has and continues to violate a provision of that contract that has far-reaching security concerns to the department, prisoners and the public. Section 17.2 of the contract addresses the packaging of items sold by KCN to prisoners. This section requires that KCN will ensure that all product packaging is "designed for safety and security in a correctional environment." To that end, the contract requires that KCN will "ensure that all packaging shall be clear, resealable or one-time use." Over time, KCN has drifted away from the packaging requirements of this contract, and began selling items which do not meet the minimum security needs of a correctional facility. In that IDOC administrators have done nothing to resolve these blatant and serious violations of security and/or health protocols by allowing these dangerous practices ...

On Sunday, 5/7/23 Unit F at the ISCC went "dark", a term used by administrators when prisoners are supposed to be locked in their cells due to a shortage of officers to staff a specific area within the prison. Were the units locked down because not enough guards reported to work? No. Were the guards that did report to work "vertically challenged " (short staffed joke... )? Again, no. Did an emergency arise which caused the lockdown? Nope... (though there was inmates on inmate violence in one of the F Block areas that morning, but only AFTER the dark period was announced). The Sunday lockdown at the ISCC is expected to be repeated several times over the week of May 7 - 13 for staff shortages during the time guards are celebrating their annual "Officer Appreciation Week" with barbecues, pizza parties and other activities while on duty - all paid for by the taxpayers. These festivities literally remove guards from their posts to allow them to go eat, drink an...

KEEFE COMMISSARY CONTINUES TO "BACK DOOR" PRISONERS ON PRICING, NOW FACING BACKLASH FOR ACTIONS In the post KEEFE COMMISSARY NETWORK/KEEFE GROUP PULLS END-RUN AROUND PRICING CONTRACT WITH IDOC TO PRICE GOUGE PRISONERS on this site, I explained how Keefe Commissary is avoiding contractual limitations on price increases by discontinuing items, then "reintroducing" the exact same item a few months later at prices with more than a 100% markup. They do this because, per contract with the IDOC, markup is limited to the rate of increase of the Consumer Price Index. In their most recent scheme, Keefe is shifting between Coca Cola and Pepsi products, and raising soda prices by nearly 100% though the most recent consumer price index went up (according to Keefe) only 5.7% (see their email to prisoners below). Keefe has also stopped selling some of their in-house brand (Cactus Annie) items and started selling brand named goods such as Doritos at more than twice the price for vi...