Idaho Prison Blog

During a recent broadcast, a producer for the Casper and Chris (Talk Radio) show on [93.1 fm/670 am] KBOI made a comment regarding a means of Idaho (and other States for that matter) carrying out executions of prisoners. His off-hand comment got me to thinking... The producer (name withheld) opined that someone might outfit a tractor-trailer to be used as a mobile death chamber that could be used to travel the country, performing executions. There is precedent kind of thing, though not exactly on point. The Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) - as do most states - contracts with any number of for-profit corporate vendors and contractors to provide services to the department and to prisoners, whether to create an impediment to liability, receive financial kickbacks, or both. To fully realize the corporate model, a company looking to privatize and outsource the execution process could procure and maintain chemicals required for lethal injection (vary by jurisdiction), am...

In what has been a continuous and well-documented issue (see IDOC'S NEW SATELLITE TV CONTRACT IS A BUST - parts 1-3 on this site), the satellite television contract between the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) and A+ Satellite located in Meridian, ID to provide satellite TV services to prisoners housed in the South Boise Complex (SBC) may soon head to court for litigation. According to an attorney consulted on the matter, prisoners have up to three (3) separate means to have the contract reviewed, interpreted and/or enforced by the courts. The first of the possibilities is to file an action against the IDOC and/or the Idaho Department of Administration (Division of Purchasing) through a Petition for Writ of Mandate (aka, Mandamus), asking the courts to Order the state agency to require A+ to conform the satellite TV system to the contractual requirements. The second option would be for the prisoners themselves to sue A+ Satellite Services to enforce the conditio...

For several years I was tasked with assisting other prisoners - specifically those with disabilities due to educational, mental, emotional and/or physical issues and some with language barriers - write Concern Forms, Grievances, and other required documents. Working between 16 and 24 hours per month (depending on the week and staffing) I was paid $10 per month from the Inmate Management Fund. Despite the myriad of assistance I was asked to provide (including providing forms, determining the proper staff to address, suggest alternative resolution methods, identifying policy and SOPs, even explaining what WAS and WAS NOT likely a viable complaint to other prisoners lost in the bureaucratic shuffle), there were two (2) things I was specifically forbidden to assist other prisoners with: Parole Hearing Interview Packets, and documents containing (HIPAA privileged) medical information. I adhered to those restrictions. Privileged medical information - well, that's pretty cl...

For a couple months, friends and family of prisoners using JPay have been having problems accessing the JPay site to send and/or retrieve emails to/from prisoners. Ever since their so-called "system maintenance" on 4/13/24, people on the outside have been having to reset their password every time they attempt to log in to the JPay website. Even after receiving complaints from several people, and charging outrageous prices to send emails, videos, photos and other electronic communications, JPay had refused to address or resolve the problem. According to one [outside] JPay user, the work around is to simply reset your password using the FORGOT PASSWORD link on their site. You can use the same password you have always used, or create a new one - either way will work. You can then access your account. To contact JPay about this or other issues, use their site or telephone them using one or more of the numbers below. > Jpay Technical Support (855) 445-5729 > Secu...

In notes from the last "town hall" meeting between [self-serving] inmates and prison administrators, staff indicated they are planning to reopen the inmate dining room (chow hall) at the ISCC for breakfast and supper meals sometime in June or July, 2024. While there has been no official announcement of the opening of the chow hall, a May 6, 2024 memorandum from the ISCC Housing Lieutenant regarding new methods of testing and feeding diabetic prisoners (in the chow hall) in the evenings going into effect on May 13, 2024 seems to corroborate the town hall notes and the move towards feeding general population prisoners in the dining room rather than providing meals in Styrofoam trays to be taken back to housing units to eat. The ISCC prisoner chow hall has not been used to feed the general population for more than 3 years due to Covid-19 and other restrictions. The chow hall has always been one of the most dangerous areas of the prison for both staff and prisoners...

In a May 8, 2024 radio interview on the Nate Shellman show on Boise market radio station KBOI, Idaho Governor Brad Little answered a question from a listener who asked when Idaho prisoners would be returned from privately operated out-of-state prisons. In response to the question, the governor said that the [Idaho] Board of Corrections and the Department of Correction are working on the construction of a women's prison. According to the Governor Little, once the new prison is completed and the female prisoners are transferred, there will be enough room to return all male prisoners from out of state facilities, as well as to have all Idaho state prisoners housed in county jails brought back into the prison system. Although I'm not aware of any funding appropriated by the Idaho Legislature for the construction of a new prison, there could well be something going on behind the scenes.

What good is it to have 75 television channels when none of them are of a quality that allows you to watch a program? That's the issue at the ISCC since the installation of the of the new satellite television system by A+ Satellite per contract between the Meridian, Idaho company and the Idaho Department of Correction. Idaho prisoners housed in Arizona, and in facilities in the north of Idaho who are not contracted with A+ Satellite have quality signal and content, while the prisoners housed in the South Boise Complex (SBC) can barely watch a third of program or movie in its entirety due to the lack of a continuous and consistent television signal. To be fair, the closed circuit television (CCTV) system in the SBC and ISCC which consists of internal TV channels (DVD players and graphics generators), Over-The-Air (OTA) channels and channels sourced from satellite receivers has been screwed up for many years, and the contract between the Idaho Department of Correction ...

Since the switchover from the [old] satellite television system on March 21, 2024 to the current system at the Idaho State Correctional Center (ISCC), configured by the contractor (A+ Satellite) located in Meridian, ID, it has become increasingly clear that the number of Over-The-Air (OTA) channels required by the contract between the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) and A+ is going to be an issue needing resolution by whatever means. The IDOC/A+ contract requires all the OTA channels available (at the facility) be provided at each of the drops (TV cable connectors), as well as a [minimum] 32 Core satellite channels. According to an April, 2024 email from Caleb Hansen, owner of A+, it's his position that the limitation of the equipment installed by his company to receive and distribute 72 channels is the maximum number of channels that will be provided for the facility. That's certainly not the last word on the matter however. Currently, the number of satell...

On March 21, 2024, the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) entered into a contract with a local company to provide satellite and over-the-air (OTA) television channels to the prison facilities located in the area just south of Boise (see the post SOUTH BOISE COMPLEX GETS NEW TV CHANNEL PACKAGE - A PRELIMINARY REVIEW on this site). This endeavor has not gone well, so it might be a good time to look into the chronic problems and possible solutions. Issue 1: THE CORE PROGRAMMING PACKAGE PROBLEM First, the definition of the word CORE (as related to the satellite TV channel content package) in the contract seems to have been viewed differently by the new contractor than by most anyone else. In communication with other [unsuccessful] bidders on this specific contract, and former IDOC TV system contractor (Mood Media), a satellite TV Core package [an industry defined standard] are the channel offerings in a specific [base] package offered for subscription by the satellite tele...

Idaho Code, Title 19 Chapter 55 (The Idaho DNA Database Act of 1996), requires that prisoners convicted of a felony must provide DNA samples and thumbprints, even if physical force is required to obtain those samples (Idaho Code §19-5511(5)). These samples are then submitted to the Idaho State Police Forensic Services and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's CODIS (or Combined DNA Index System), a database that allows the storage and exchange of DNA records submitted by state and local forensic laboratories. Idaho's Database Act is very specific - according to I.C. §19-5501, the purpose of the act is to assist federal, state and local criminal justice and law enforcement agencies within and outside the state in the detection and prosecution of individuals responsible for felony crimes, as well as in the exclusion of suspects who are being investigated for such crimes. So what happens to the accuracy and reliability of these database(s) when the samples submitte...