by David J. Meister
Roughly an hour’s drive southeast of Phoenix, Arizona, in remote Pinal County, several sprawling complexes of concrete blocks and razor-wire-topped fences mar the desert landscape. One of them is the Saguaro Correctional Center (SCC) — a private prison facility operated by CoreCivic, the latest incarnation of the infamous Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
True to the notorious CCA brand, Saguaro is understaffed, under-regulated, and overfilled with inmates dislocated from multiple states. The facility houses hundreds of prisoners from Idaho, Hawaii, and Montana under interstate contracts.
Private-prison watchdogs have long documented violence, overcrowding, and preventable deaths at SCC — including murders, stabbings, and fatal overdoses in recent years. (ACLU Hawaii; Civil Beat; Montana Free Press)
My name is David Meister, and I’m an advocate for prison reform. I’m an Idaho prisoner recently transplanted to Arizona. Day One at Saguaro — fresh off the transport bus — I was housed in a cell where, just two weeks earlier, Idaho inmate Christopher Pendleton, 38, had been stabbed to death. Dried blood still freckled the walls.
According to official reports, Pendleton was found unresponsive with life-threatening injuries on August 20, 2025, and later pronounced dead. His death is being investigated as a homicide by the Eloy Police Department. (AZ Family; East Idaho News)
That incident was only one chapter in a larger saga at SCC. Over the following month I witnessed staff neglect, arbitrary collective punishment of inmates, and a dozen alarming events. None of it raised an eyebrow among staff or inmates — just business as usual.
Then on October 9, Idaho inmate Floyd Long died from heart complications induced by drug use. The next day, October 10, another Idaho inmate, Alfonso Leon Jr., would have met a similar fate if not for the quick thinking of his cellmate, Joshua “Crazyeyes” Lundquist (TT @crazyeyesinmatelife). Crazyeyes rolled Alfonso to his side and spooned vomit from his mouth to keep him from suffocating during a seizure. Instead of medical care when Alfonso regained consciousness, security staff assaulted him while he was already in restraints — and hauled him to segregation.
Just another day in the private-prison industry. Not even a blip on the public’s radar.
Now I understand why I was transferred here: to make noise. The Idaho Department of Correction needed a herald at Saguaro. I am meant to unearth what SCC’s administration would bury. I’m uniquely qualified — and eager for the mission IDOC has entrusted to me.
My long history of contesting poor conditions began in 2006-07. After months of harassment over grievances about lost and withheld mail at the Idaho Correctional Center (also a CCA-run facility), I was unfairly labeled a Security Threat Group (STG) member and subjected to punitive segregation and retaliatory transfers. I filed a lawsuit and spent 2007 learning how to litigate it.
I was mentored by inveterate inmate legal-eagles who had achieved real reform in Idaho’s prisons. I followed their lead — devouring legal treatises and case law. In 2008, I graduated from a 900-hour paralegal correspondence course, and in 2011 earned an advanced certificate in criminal law and procedure.
I applied my new skills by assisting other inmates with their cases. Then in 2014, I published Battling the Administration: An Inmate’s Guide to a Successful Lawsuit — a manual designed to walk prisoners through the barriers they face in court and how to protect their rights. (Prison Legal News review)
Coincidentally, that same year, I had to use my own teachings when officials at the Idaho State Correctional Institution (ISCI, formerly ICC) enacted policies favoring certain religious groups over others. I filed suit and negotiated a more equitable distribution of Chapel resources and policy changes. (Prison Legal News coverage, “Iowa Settles Religious Discrimination Suit Brought by Incarcerated Odinist”)*
Also in 2014, the State of Idaho stonewalled my Public Records Request. I filed a Petition to Compel Disclosure of Public Records and won at summary judgment. (Meister v. Kempf, CV-OC-1517118 (Idaho 4th Dist. 2014))
In 2017, I was appointed as one of five class-action inmate representatives in the historic Balla v. Idaho Board of Corrections case — a 35-year-old litigation enforcing constitutional conditions at ISCI. I documented inadequate medical care and reported it to federal monitors until the case closed in 2021.
By 2022, at public demand, I released an updated edition of my law manual, rebranded as the MEISTER MANUAL for Prisoners’ Lawsuits. Without Balla oversight, prison conditions at ISCI rapidly declined. Behind the scenes I raised awareness while avoiding retaliation — until 2025, when conditions worsened enough that I took the struggle public and launched MeisterArchive.com to expose program cuts, dehumanizing policies, and systemic neglect at Idaho’s flagship facility.
Apparently, IDOC appreciated my work — because I was abruptly shipped to Arizona.
They removed my transfer hold with surprising urgency. The message was clear: there was a situation at Saguaro, and they needed it contained or exposed. I can attest — their fears were justified.
I won’t let you down, IDOC.
I’ll expose the corruption.
I’ll bring the truth to light.
*PLN stated that Iowa settled the religious suit. I reached out to them about making the correction to Idaho.