Previous: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter, May 2021
WELCOME to the June edition of First Amend This!
This publication provides an insider look at issues affecting the Idaho Department of Correction community. If you wish to assist this effort, share the link, cut and paste, or print and send a copy to another.
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GET INVOLVED
IDOC will be holding monthly Townhall With Leadership meetings all through 2021. Submit your questions to brightideas@idoc.idaho.gov using the subject line “Q’s for leadership,” and be sure to attend to keep the conversation going.
Offender friends and families interested in networking concerns are encouraged to join the Idaho Inmate Family Support Group (IIFSG) on Facebook or contact them at idahoinmate@gmail.com.
Know of a resource not listed on this site? Leave the info in the comments and we’ll add it to our directory.
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Last month it was announced we’d have a scheduled execution, the first to take place in almost ten years. Predictably, our residents heard it from the news and not from the department in charge of their care — and were it not for an arduous battle in the courts, the medicinal executioner and its source would still be rooted in mystery.
For those reasons we feel this issue should contain a detailed rehash and a “Where We Are Now.” But due to the restrictive nature in which we’re allowed to use JPay, we’ve decided only to report the execution has been halted, and to verify that vicariously experiencing a scheduled execution creates ripples through the psyche with residual effect.
Consider the following:
While all of our TVs were blasting the details, family communications discussing the state-ordered death were being censored en masse in accordance with policy. Per policy, staff are to censor messages containing information that could conceivably be used to identify others in custody. (Two policies* actually require staff to censor transmissions with ANY information of ANY person’s crime, including information unrelated to Idaho. Worded to include news of child trafficking charges in Czechoslovakia, they’re nothing less than totalitarian provisions that make our Corrections appear as a regime.) They say it’s a matter of protecting the people in their care, including those whose deaths they’ve been tasked with engineering.
Meanwhile, for residents who struggle to process the complexities of a state-ordered death (and it would be absurd to say there are few), no communication is made to ensure their well-being, no information is offered to assist as they process, and conversations dissecting what’s reported on the news are prohibited between residents and their networks of emotional support.
These few variables are just those that we can mention. Not included are those that affect our friendly staff: like observing monstrosities while wearing state muzzles, or having to justify their actions as a paycheck and a job.
Keeping in mind there’s always more to consider, we start with an article that illustrates how suppression is boss.
Let’s First Amend This!
*Policies 503.02.01.001(Telephones and Electronic Communications) and 402.02.01.001 (Mail Handling In Correctional Facilities).
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QUESTIONABLE CENSORSHIP: WHO’S PROTECTING WHO?
The following incidents were logged by one resident over a period of just eighteen months. Unfortunately, many residents don’t trust the grievance process, leaving myriad incidents to go unlogged despite the severity and repetition of offense.
Date: 3-27-19
Staff implicated in a claim of retaliation investigate themselves before dismissing the claim. (Grievance: II 190000285.)
Date: 4-22-19
Following the suspicious transfer of an Idaho inmate filing complaints from a Texas facility, Texas agency responses aren’t forwarded as required, leaving inmate unable to issue a timely response. (Grievance: CF 190000104.)
Date: 5-13-2019
Staff refuse to mail parcels addressed to media, legislators and advocates. (Grievance: IM 190000181.)
Date: 6-24-2019
Staff facing allegations of misconduct investigate themselves, and then refuse to forward their investigation to IDOC’s Special Investigations Unit per policy. (Grievance: II 190000578.)
Date: 10-04-2019
Idaho inmate organizing group complaints in Texas is denied access to Texas court materials following an alleged retaliatory transfer. (Grievance: IM 190000387.)
Date: 12-04-2019
Two copies of one tort claim, placed in Legal Mail, correctly addressed to two separate recipients, are both returned twice to the claimant, for a total of four times gone undelivered. One parcel sits in-facility three weeks before it’s returned. Despite both parcels sitting in claimant’s possession, staff maintain they were mailed to the authorities. (Grievance: IM 190000484.)
Date: 01-30-20
Limitations imposed on mailing materials are imposed on the claimant and nobody else. This following another barrage of correspondence with media, lawmakers and advocates. (Grievance: IM 200000050.)
Date: 03/18/2020
Local news articles reporting IDOC public records lawsuit are censored over JPay. (Grievance: IM 200000155.)
Date: 3/26/2020
An attempt to grieve staff retaliation is obstructed. (Grievance: IM 200000170.)
Date: 7/30/2020
A communiqué reporting staff-on-inmate violence is censored over JPay. (Grievance: IM 200000377.)
Date: 8/14/2020
A communiqué reporting sexual misconduct of staff is censored over JPay. (Grievance: IM 200000403.)
Date: 8/18/2020
A communiqué reporting staff-on-inmate violence is censored over JPay. (Grievance: IM 200000411.)
Date: 9/17/2020
News article reporting COVID-related violence is censored over JPay. (Grievance: IM 200000456.)
That question again is: Who’s protecting who?
Source: bookofirving82431.com, “Exhausted Grievances In Summary (for legal and investigative purpose).”
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$283,100,000 ISN’T ENOUGH TO BUY EVERYONE A WORKBOOK
Knowing a minimum of $27,134 was spent last year to house me in corrections, I set out to discover whether any portion of this year’s budget would be used to assist me in serving my sentence constructively.
My investigation begins six and a half years into my fifteen- to thirty-nine-year sentence, imposed by the State for two counts of arson. Having committed my crime in a drug-induced psychosis — after chemically medicating to cope with some grief — I presumed that the Department possessed the utility to assist me in addressing my addictions, afflictions and deconstructive tendencies.
What I found instead was that despite $283.1M pulled from state coffers this year to fund our Corrections, case managers are still unable to accommodate everyone.
To some extent, the situation is understandable: we lack the staff and instructors to make the most of our classrooms. And classrooms, it’s said, is where the magic happens.
But classes for me were never an option. And not just because I’m Ad-Segged during a pandemic, but because the Idaho Maximum Security Institution only offers treatment and church to select groups of inmates. (See: Grievance IM 190000344.)
Thus I’m found in my cell, prepared to go it alone, but hoping nonetheless for an IDOC workbook.
Workbooks: Often prescribed with a regimen of classes, they’re used to treat everything from sexual deviance to a spectrum of violent tendencies. Workbooks are considered a staple in correctional therapies. So much so that, without completing workbooks, one is unlikely to be granted parole.*
Unfortunately, as most case managers will tell you: “There are only enough chairs in each class for the parole-eligible to participate, and only enough workbooks available to go with each chair.”
My case manager provided no exception. Regretfully, she informed me, her stock of supplies were shy of nonexistent. The only therapeutic materials she had to offer me were skeletal printouts available online.
Sympathetic to the limits imposed on her abilities, I asked if something was available for processing grief and for something, if they had it, along the lines of future-thinking.
At my window arrives, a few days later, one mental health clinician, excited to be of service.
And as seven fresh printouts were passed through the seams of my steel door, I credited he and my case manager for the sheets and their warmth.
Fresh cup of coffee, it was time to start my treatment.
Complicated Grief: Sometimes, the symptoms of acute grief never seem to go away. They can last for years. The loss of a loved one continues to feel unreal and unmanageable. You might constantly yearn for the deceased, or experience guilt about the idea of “moving on” and accepting the loss.
Of the five paragraphs found on page one, that diagnosis best suited my condition.
Tasks of Mourning: 1) accept the reality of the loss, 2) process the pain of grief, 3) adjust to a world without the deceased and, 4) find a way to remember the deceased while moving forward in life.
Twenty-three sentences later, page two complete, I remedially realized I had let go of a monster: The recommended internal, external and spiritual adjustments were taking. Only two more pages and I’d transform my whole being.
My Stages of Grief: Describe in a few short lines how the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance have affected you.
Page three? Shit — I murdered that f*ckin’ page, and wasted no time filling out the Goodbye on page four.
To: Dominic, You Dead Sonofabitch
CC: Terry, Don, Jolene, Melissa, Sue, Heath
I am saying goodbye because……………….it’s been almost a decade.
Saying goodbye makes me feel……………like feelings are intruders.
I remember a time when we…………………………pleaded many Fifths.
You taught me……………………………………….righteousness is awesome.
Something I want you to know is……I’m still performing numbers.
I will always remember………………that we’re the kind to not forget.
From: Therapist Pat
At this point, I would be remiss not to acknowledge that I was gifted a miracle. It was like I had been touched by the compassion, grace, and sensitive understanding one only expects from a weird distant uncle.
That horrible chapter closed, I was ready to tackle cognition.
Socratic Questions: Thoughts are like a running dialogue in your brain. They come and go fast. So fast, in fact, that we rarely have the time to question them. Because our thoughts determine how we feel, and how we act, it’s important to challenge any thought that causes us harm.
Interesting, how all one needs to checkmate their thoughts is two greasy elbows and four stupid questions.
Decatastrophizing: Cognitive distortions are irrational thoughts that have the power to influence how you feel. Everyone has some cognitive distortions–they’re a normal part of being human. However, when cognitive distortions are too plentiful or extreme, they can be harmful.
Page two’s questions came at me a little rougher. Fortunately for me, I was already rushing from huffing humanity’s finest.
Naked on the shitter, I continued pressing on.
1) What are you worried about?
2) How likely is it your worry will come true?
3) If your worry comes true, what’s the worst that could happen?
4) If your worry comes true, what’s most likely to happen?
5) If your worry comes true, what are the chances you’ll be okay?
Third and final page, time to slay the dragon.
Thoughts and Behaviors (Cost/Benefit Analysis): List the costs and benefits of seven thoughts or behaviors. Rate the importance of each from 1-10. After reviewing the costs and benefits of the current thought or behavior, develop a more adaptive alternative.
Tens across the board and I believe that I’ve evolved.
The feeling, unreal, is something I suspect is worth informing the others – once I’m done screaming to the fiends that are weening in the vent, asking all and any if they’ll double-check my work.
*When COVID arrived and closed all our classrooms, the Department continued issuing thousands of certificates, presumably based on workbook participation alone. These are the same certificates required to meet criteria for parole.
So even if each workbook costs north of $20 — which would be unlikely considering they’re purchased in bulk — why not distribute them to everyone willing to treat their behaviors, and give our case managers something more to work with?
[Materials from Therapistaid.com. If you enjoyed this article, we recommend viewing “IDOC Now Hiring: Alchemist Wizards Wanted.“]
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CONFLICTING STORIES EMERGE: THE ISCC DISTURBANCE
[This story has been formatted for transmission over JPay.]
Regarding thy disturbance that thou shall not mention over JPay
Thy disturbance that hath been reported by local news
Thy disturbance that thy Department hath reported on thou’s website
But doth not allow families to forward their loved one’s
Possibly because thy Department doth not wish to be fact-checked
Of such disturbance, it hath been said,
Not by one but more and possibly all,
Unnecessary use of force by staff was thy culprit
And thy video thou holds is thy knower of truth
And we shame thy heathens that so flagrantly sin
For the pain they inflict on the people they oppress
Regarding all matters of staff-on-inmate violence
Regarding all matters of sexual misconduct on the afflicted,
The afflicted in their charge that they often do touch
Regarding all matters of obstruction to thy courts
Regarding all matters of censoring thy loved ones
God doth damn thy heathens,
Thy weasels,
Thy maggots,
Thy watchers complicit
Who know but do naught
And forever we find them
Logged in our good book
Thus no one forgets
For thousands of years
And that book’s name is
Exhausted Grievances In Summary
(for legal and investigative purpose)
Lord, let it not be a product of waste
Amen.
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COVID NEWS
[As of May 22,] over 34,00 tests have been administered to IDOC residents in three states. More than 4,390 have identified positive and a total of six deaths have been reported as COVID-related.
Among residents, over 2270 vaccinations have been fully completed, and at least 696 have received their first shot.
Despite facility staff having early access to vaccinations, PrisonPolicyInitiative.org reported on April 21 that the percentage of IDOC’s vaccinated prison staff was only 28%.
It appears residents with Hepatitis C were not prioritized as having an underlying medical condition. Inquiring into this matter, an IMSI Hep-C resident was returned this response by Will Wingert R.N.: “[W]e already did 65+. When we get them, they will be offered to all, regardless of health conditions.”
Despite Governor Little’s promise that eligible Idahoans would be vaccinated immediately upon request, many inmate requests have gone unanswered for months.
Fact sheet for vaccines can be found at:
www.modernatx.com/covid19vaccine-eua
www.janssencovid19vaccine.com
www.cvdvaccine.com
Rumors that all three vaccines add several inches to the penis have yet to be confirmed, but the odds are pretty good.
ACLU Idaho and the law firm Shearman & Sterling are in it for the long-haul. They will remain in close contact with IDOC while monitoring all issues related to COVID. Those with concerns are invited to forward their COVID experiences to:
ACLU Idaho
PO Box 1987
Boise, ID 83701
View IDOC’s COVID numbers here.
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FAT! BOOK DRIVE
This month we pay it forward by highlighting our book-driving friends at Rogue Liberation Library. Having massively expanded their outreach, they could use a little help covering increased mailing costs. We sent them $10, can anyone match us?
RLL
PO Box 3418
Ashland, Or 97520
rogueliberationlibrary@gmail.com
peacehouse.net/RLL/
This month’s contributions came from friends of Jesus! and the FAT! family:
The Everything American Government Book by Nick Ragone
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard A. Thaler
The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Miracles by C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
Surprised By Joy by C.S. Lewis
Through Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel
Piercing The Darkness by Frank E. Peretti
This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti
God Will Use This For Good by Max Lucado
Serving Productive Time by Tom & Laura Lagana
Unlocked: Keys to Getting Out & Staying Out by Chance A. Johnmeyer
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IDOC PREPARES TO RESUME VISITATION
The Department is preparing to resume in-person visitation on a facility-by-facility basis. The vaccination rate of residents, results of recent COVID testing, and facility locations have been offered as factors. The vaccination rate of facility staff have not.
According to IDOC’s website: “People who can show proof of vaccination may be allowed to visit their loved one with fewer restrictions, like the requirement they wear a mask, and, in some cases, be separated by a plexiglass barrier.”
For those whose visiting applications expired during COVID, now is the time to see them renewed.
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DAY ONE PROGRAM RECEIVES $250,000 FROM IDOC CARES GRANT
An IDOC CARES grant has been awarded to the PEER Wellness Center in Boise. The $250,000 grant will be used to help returning citizens “face the unique challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to ISCI Case Manager Tony Arruberrera.
The funding will be applied towards the Center’s Day One Program, which is described in an IDOC article written by Arrburrera as “a collaborative and community-based approach to re-entry support services for individuals transitioning from an institution to our communities.”
The program helps new releases meet their immediate needs by providing transportation to community resource centers and to first-day check-ins, as required by Parole. In addition to a heavy focus on the first 48 hours — which includes obtaining the client a bus pass, cell phone, peer support, group schedules, clothing vouchers, hygiene bags, a food box and bedding (for those who are halfway-housed) — PEER Wellness volunteers also offer assistance on an individual basis for as long as one returning feels that they may need it. That assistance arrives in the form of peer support: resource referrals, check-up calls and texts, encouragement, mentoring, and various support groups.
Developed and led Mark Person, the Day One program reports multiple requests for assistance every week. As a fellow returning citizen, veteran and brethren in recovery, Person is a perfect ambassador for the service he’s established to welcome back members of the community with love and support.
The PEER Wellness Center is just one of many community partners providing Idaho Corrections a helpful assist.
Residents are hopeful that IDOC’s community-partners will start working their way through the Department’s facilities, where peer support and mentorships are direly needed.
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RENICK ON THE RADIO
With over 100 episodes available for streaming, Mark Renick hosts Victory Over Sin on KBXL 94.1FM, Saturdays at 12:30 pm.
This month Mark welcomed Evette Navedo, the programming director for GEO Group Re-entry Services. Evette shared with Mark and his audience the contractual nature of the community services that IDOC has employed GEO to provide.
Kourtney Stafford, GEO’s transitional housing manager, also joined Mark to discuss her interests and background, as well as her history with Idaho and how GEO’s tiered housing options will assist returning citizens as they make their move forward.
Off-air, Mark works with a re-entry effort under an advocacy arm of St. Vincent de Paul. He and his team are in the process of expanding their services throughout southern Idaho. Learn more @ svdpid.org and imsihopecommunityphaseii.com.
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IN THE FORUMS
It’s being reported that approximately sixty have returned from Saguaro in Arizona.
Persisting rumors with the Arizona contract imply the Saguaro population may soon be moved to a different facility.
Many are upset that IDOC disabled their comments on Facebook. The action is described as an affront to transparent communication. Choice words are also being offered for the new Facebook Q&A format — specifically, over the Department cherry-picking questions. Those who participate would like to return to the format Kempf used.
Folks still dealing with stimulus issues are encouraged to view “Missing Stimulus Payments For the Incarcerated? Questions and Answers“.
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INMATE SERVICES AT WORK
5-17-21
Dear Mayor McLean,
Greetings, Mayor! I come to you with a network of justice-involved interests I found actively orienting in civic pursuit. All of which won’t approve of this segue, but because you must be busy, I offer you my spiel:
While it’s realized that correctional matters are delegated to State, it’s members of localities that the State affects with its decisions — in the case of Corrections, the amount of local resources allotted for institutional aftercare, the training and skill sets we afford our incarcerated to be released with, and whether intervening in a crisis is worth more money than preventing one — and it’s also local communities Corrections depends on to provide returning citizens with humble opportunities.
Therefore I find it makes sense to establish local forums for law enforcement professionals, behavioral health specialists and community helpers to exchange insight and experience with justice-affected families — those with convictions and victims alike.
Having already engaged our Idaho lawmakers, I’m now intent on approaching city leaders and councils. But this has proven for me a difficult task, as their various associations are somewhat unresponsive to old-fashioned deliveries marked “Inmate Correspondence.”
Thus I find myself in your office with minimal ish, asking the following questions: Might you be willing to share pertinent information and suggestions to help me proceed with my most lawful quest? And might you also be willing to share my project among your network of aforementioned that would presumably share an interest in participatory discussion?
Included are links to materials I’m sending around. I’m told that they offer much-needed perspective.
Forever grateful for thoughtful assists,
Patrick Irving 82431
IMSI
PO Box 51
Boise, ID 83707
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SUGGESTION BOX
We suggest these additional sources of intel for our audience:
idahoprisonproject.org
idahoprisonblog.blogspot.com
jailmedicine.com
prisonpolicyinitiative.org
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Amber waves of grain, y’all! See you next month.
“All the Trees of the Hill Will Clap Their Hands”
–Sufjan Stevens
Next: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter, July ’21 (Si Kahn Tribute Issue)