Category: Dispatches
First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Dec. ’23
Previous: First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Nov. ’23 [Revised 1/5/2024] Welcome to the December 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, copy and paste, or print and send this issue to … Continue reading “First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Dec. ’23”
IDOC Offers Free Financial Literacy Courses to Returning Citizens, Their Spouses and the Spouses of Its Residents
Financial literacy instructor Jack Dujanovic has spent the better part of a decade educating people who are incarcerated on how to budget and invest responsibly, regardless of their level of income. He is now offering free financial literacy courses to all returning citizens, their spouses, and the spouses of anyone who is currently in custody … Continue reading “IDOC Offers Free Financial Literacy Courses to Returning Citizens, Their Spouses and the Spouses of Its Residents”
Cookies For Corrections: Help Spread Holiday Cheer Through Idaho’s Prison System
Mark Renick and his team are at it again, collecting store-bought cookies, donations and volunteers willing to help sort, bag and distribute roughly 6,000 bags of cookies destined to people in Idaho prisons. Thanks to a collaboration made possible by the Idaho Department of Correction, the cookies will be distributed throughout the growing prison complex … Continue reading “Cookies For Corrections: Help Spread Holiday Cheer Through Idaho’s Prison System”
IDOC Scheduled for Prison Rape Elimination Act Compliance Audit
11/28/23 The Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) today notified residents of the Idaho State Correctional Institution that a certified Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) compliance auditor will be visiting the facility from January 8 to January 11 to determine the agency’s compliance with the U.S. Department of Justice’s PREA Standards for Prisons and Jails. According … Continue reading “IDOC Scheduled for Prison Rape Elimination Act Compliance Audit”
A Public Service Announcement from the Idaho Department of Correction: Know This Before Attempting to Celebrate the Holidays by Drinking Homemade Prison Wine
The IDOC shared this message with its residents over JPay on 11.17.23. It is presented here in accordance with the Idaho Public Records Act Pruno: A Recipe for Botulism You may have heard about a cheap, quick way to make a kind of homemade alcohol that goes by many different names, including pruno, hooch, brew, … Continue reading “A Public Service Announcement from the Idaho Department of Correction: Know This Before Attempting to Celebrate the Holidays by Drinking Homemade Prison Wine”
First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Nov. ’23
Previous: First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Oct. ’23 [Censored!!!] Welcome to the November issue 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, copy and paste, or print and send this issue to another. … Continue reading “First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Nov. ’23”
Patrick published in the Prison Journalism Project – Humor Section: Communicating With Tech Support From Prison
Patrick’s article is a non-fictionalized account of his recent experience with JPay tech support. Here it is! [Publisher’s note: I have worked in both internal and customer-facing tech support teams at a couple of large companies you may have dealt with. I’ve also helped design and provide the comms infrastructure for many of the call … Continue reading “Patrick published in the Prison Journalism Project – Humor Section: Communicating With Tech Support From Prison”
First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Oct. ’23 [Censored!!!]
Previous: First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Sept. ’23 Welcome to the October 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, copy and paste, or print and send this issue to another. Loved ones … Continue reading “First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Oct. ’23 [Censored!!!]”
Someone at the Idaho Department of Correction Is Attempting to Sink My Journalism
I’m writing this update from my new home at the Idaho State Correctional Institution, a medium security facility. Prior to my transfer earlier this month from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, I wondered how staff at this facility would respond to my efforts as an outreach journalist. It didn’t take long before I found out: … Continue reading “Someone at the Idaho Department of Correction Is Attempting to Sink My Journalism”
Published in Prison Journalism Project: “I Spoke to a Classroom in Germany From My Maximum Security Prison”
The Prison Journalism Project published an article that Patrick wrote as a follow-up to his Zoom discussion with instructor Henny Hearn and her class of criminal justice students at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. You can find it here.