SOUTH BOISE COMPLEX GETS NEW TV CHANNEL PACKAGE - A PRELIMINARY REVIEW

On Thursday March 21, 2024 the new television system came online at the Idaho State Correctional Center and other facilities in the South Boise Complex. As it stands, not only are the stations chosen for viewing relatively pedestrian - especially where more than half a million dollars was spent for the two year contract - many of the channels that are (contractually) supposed to be available are not.

In addition to several missing local, over-the-air (OTA) television stations which have not yet been placed on the system (13 at last count), virtually every channel that is available "freezes" for several minutes per hour. Further, there are only 30 "satellite" channels where there are supposed to be 32 (per contract).

More disturbing is that 8 of the satellite channels airing on the new system are religious in nature - in addition to the facility "chapel" channel that is supposed to take care of the myriad religious needs of prisoners in the facility. Another issue is the fact that 2 (and possibly 3) of the religious channels (including 3ABN and Daystar) are available over the air, but are being processed through satellite receivers, preventing those satellite receivers/channels from airing secular programming.

The ISCC maintains and airs a dedicated CCTV "chapel" channel which represents all religions and denominations. Because there are so many religious denominations not represented through the system, while others are over-represented, the state is opening itself up to a [religious] discrimination suit, as well as a suit related to the 'establishment of religion'. Indeed, with the dedicated chapel channel sufficient to meet the needs of all prisoners, there is no reason to use any of the allotted 32 satellite channels for religious programming, nor were these religious channels contemplated for inclusion in the (minimum 32 channel) satellite TV package.

Granted, the new TV channel and cable system has been up for less than a week at the time of this writing, so I'll give it a few more days before giving a final [and more critical] review. Next step would be a complaint to the Idaho Department of Administration for contractual violations, then grievances, then lawsuits... but I certainly hope it won't come to that.