Idaho Prison Blog

9/10/21 Dear JPay Customer, We have a new sale going on with over ten Betterment games along with some classic arcade games. When you visit the Game Store, check out the Reduced Price category for a list of titles available for temporarily discounted prices! This promotion will run through Thursday, September 23, 2021. We hope these discounts help you enjoy playing more games! Warm regards, Your JPay Team /////////// 9/10/21 MESSAGE FROM KEEFE - OUT OF STOCK ALIAS DESCRIPTION DUE DATE 0048 Coconut Oil 9/24/2021 0035 3 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner 9/24/2021 6607 Hot Peanuts 9/24/2021 0720 Antifungal Powder 9/24/2021 6241 Mixed Nuts 9/24/2021 6385 Salted Peanuts. 9/17/2021 7126 Book Light 9/30/2021 5361 Medium Thermal Top 9/30/2021 0981 Wet Dry Shaver 9/30/2021 6995 Beard Trimmer 9/30/2021 1370 Sewing Kit 9/30/2021 0550 Soft Toothbrush 9/30/2021 0200 Baby Powder 9/30/2021 0264 Dandruff Shampoo 9/30/2021 4924 Skecher Size 12 10/8/2021 6826 Tuna 10/1/2021 2789 Tapatio 10/1/2021 4916 Skeche...

On Wednesday, September 1, 2021 a retirement party for ISCC Warden Jay Christensen took place at the IDOC Central Office in downtown Boise. Christensen, who took over as warden at the ISCC upon promotion of Warden Randy Blades some 8 years ago to a division administrative position at Central Office is - according to the rank and file - primarily responsible for the plummeting decline in staff morale and working conditions at the ISCC, as well as the increased inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-staff violence throughout the prison during his tenure. Liz Neville, formerly the warden at the South Boise Women's Correctional Center (SBWCC) took over the position on September 1, 2021. Christensen's last day with the IDOC will be September 30, 2021. Hopefully the new warden can turn things around at the ISCC - though first impression in a grievance appeal response from her which seemed to be a little "off the rails" doesn't give much hope of that. Fingers crossed... ________...

/////// Dear JPay Customer, We wanted to reinforce how committed we are to improving your interaction with our products and services. We know youve experienced some frustrations with our services and wanted to share updates on recent issues, improvements and upcoming fixes. A new application update on Sunday, August 29th introduced some errors/problems Lost ability to access Drafts folder on tablets We apologize for this error that inadvertently occurred through the latest release. The Drafts Folder on tablets were reactivated on Monday, August 30th at 2:10pm EDT. If you are still missing the Drafts Folder, please submit a trouble ticket. Missing return key on the tablet keyboard, making users unable to create paragraphs An app update on Friday, September 3rd will fix this issue. On that date, once you sync your tablet to the kiosk and receive the software update the return key will reappear and allow for paragraphs. Upcoming Fixes Our team is diligently working on a fix that will rein...

Readers of this site have asked about the many misspelled words in emails sent to inmates that are reproduced on this site. For the most part, the emails are printed here as received. I have on occasions corrected some of the misspelled words before publishing them on idahoprisonblog.org, but this leads to wanting to correct all the misspellings, then to correct the grammatical errors, then ... who knows. Thus, I will leave the misspelled words alone [please forgive me Daniel Webster] so you can see exactly the content we receive here in the prison. After all, that's what this site is all about. Thanks for visiting this blog, and if you have any comments, requests for additional content on this site or just want to say Hello, send me an email at: daleshackelford1@gmail.com or sign up on JPay.com to communicate with me directly. You'll be glad you did.

8/27/21 MESSAGE FROM DEPUTY CHIEF ROSS CASTLETON [EDITOR'S NOTE: Though the memorandum is dated 8/24/21, this email was received by the inmate population via JPay email on 8/27/21.] Memorandum Date: August 24, 2021 To: Resident Population From: Deputy Chief Ross Castleton RE: Inmate Banking Concern Forms As of September 7, 2021, all concern forms intended for Inmate Banking must be submitted electronically. Physical (paper) concern forms will no longer be accepted except for those residents without JPAY access. The purpose for this change is to save time and resources and to better serve the resident population. A list of frequently asked questions has been posted in your area. Please refer to this list prior to sending a concern as the standard response posted will be the response you will receive. Examples include questions regarding: Trust account statements, funds not received from county jails, medical co-pays, and more. R. Castleton Deputy Chief /////// 8/27/21 MESSAGE FROM K...

On Saturday, August 14, 2021 staff delivered the long awaited JP6 tablets to hundreds of prisoners at the ISCC. Ordered as early as May 24th with scheduled delivery in June (then July, then August) there were high expectations for these new tablets primarily due to the exploding batteries, lack of ability to download or access purchased apps and systems, and other fundamental malfunctions of the JP5s. The 32 Gig JP6 however, in firmware and software terms, turned out to be a turd - and JPay has, and continues to fail to make good on fixing any of the myriad problems with the tablet more than 2 weeks later. For more than a week the JP6 not only failed to download new or past emails, it literally (and I'm not joking) ACTIVELY lied to us when we tried to do so. First of all, we can never actually check our emails (on any tablet), rather, we can only open the email app, then refresh the screen. It's a distinction with a small, but significant difference in terms of computing. In op...

[Editor's Note: There was a follow up to this email received on 8/19/21 which was nearly identical and therefore is not included on this site.] Aventivs Original Hip-Hop Track Contest Do you enjoy writing? Is music a passion of yours? Are you interested in the potential opportunity to collaborate with Grammy award-winning rapper, Lecrae? If any of these ideas are appealing to you, then Aventivs new Original Hip-Hop Track Contest is something for you to consider! The campaign is an opportunity for incarcerated individuals who are interested in music to submit original hip-hop lyrics to one of three hip-hop beats that have been provided for the campaign from Record Producer, Zaytoven. The winning hip-hop lyrics will be produced into a song in partnership with Grammy Award winning artist, Lecrae, and will be available for free to all correctional facilities that have access to the Media Store from JPay and Securus Technologies! This is a voluntary contest. All submissions will be asse...

  MESSAGE SUPPLY CHAIN CONSTRAINTS To: IDOC POPULATION From: J Tyler, Dietary Manager Date: 08/13/2021 Re: Ongoing supply chain constraints As you may have already heard in the news: due to pandemic shutdowns, droughts, labor shortages, shipping port congestion, and a backlog of trucking schedules, the manufacturing and delivery of goods has been greatly slowed. All of these factors come at a time when stimulus money has increased consumer demand for goods, so the overall demand is greater than the supply, and the US is playing catch up with the supply chain. What this means for IDOC is that although there is enough food and other consumables available, there isnt always the full quantity of specific items available to us, or deliveries of certain goods are being delayed. As we work through this situation (which is expected to last at least through the end of the year), you may see menu substitutions at your facility. We will do our best to communicate menu changes in advance, but ...

8/9/21 Dear JPay Customer, We wanted to let you know that our Development Team is making updates to the virtual Amelia customer service offering available on the kiosk. During this process, you will see two Amelia buttons one will take you to an informational screen about the service and the other will direct you to the Amelia virtual agent for help as you normally use the service. Once the updates are finished it will revert back to just one Amelia button. Best, Your JPay Team //// MESSAGE FROM KEEFE TO: RESIDENT POPULATION FROM: KEEFE COMMISSARY NETWORK DATE: 8-9-2021 To whom it may concern, Keefe has started to partner with SWBCC and has moved away from SICI female workforce. Keefe will be experiencing challenges in the production of commissary orders while we train the SWBCC workforce. Please be patient because some of our deliveries may be later than normal. Keefe will update facilities as situations change. Thank you, Keefe Commissary ///// 8/6/21 Dear JPay Customer, We wanted to...