Updates

Previous: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter, Sept. ’21

WELCOME to the October 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, 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 are encouraged to join the Idaho Inmate Family Support Group (IIFSG) on Facebook or contact them at idahoinmate@gmail.com.
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EDITOR’S NOTE

Director Tewalt recently published a particularly powerful, personal experience as a Director’s Update on the IDOC website. Elegantly written, it was an incredibly heart-wrenching matter, and it felt inappropriate to place it in an issue with gripes. I can’t recommend enough that you take the time to check it out. I feel it’s one worth sharing; possibly you will, too.

For those of you noticing this issue was published late, consider it a sign that I need I some time outside my cubby and away from the stick of Deputy Warden Susan Wessels.

Some of you are already familiar with the story of how, three years ago, I participated in an out-of-state, private prison protest that was used as a reason to place me in Max. With three the lucky number, I can now mention how the overwhelming majority involved in that week’s worth of incidents held onto their lower-security classifications after returning to Idaho–including several with infractions that were much worse than mine. For months, one was even able to wash my ad-seg window as an ever trusted janitor with wonderful information.

Needless to say, being singled out really rubbed my feels all wrong.

And I have an amazing memory.

Let’s First Amend This!
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WHILE NINE FIGURES CAN BE SPENT TO ADDRESS OUR OVERCROWDING, TWO SHITS CAN’T BE GIVEN TO PREPARE US FOR PAROLE

We bring you a Department now deep in crisis, hundreds of millions of dollars are the cost of their peril, with staff-to-resident ratios rapidly rising, more beds are direly needed, and the COVID doth compound…

With $6,000,000 in efforts to mitigate recidivism, $170,000,000 asked for to build a brand new prison, and $5,500,000 withdrawn to deal with understaffing, someone has forgotten to print the goddamn packets that prepare us to be interviewed for that release valve called parole.

Per Policy 607.26.01.014 (Program Management for Inmates), correctional case managers (CCMs) are responsible for distributing Parole Hearing Interview Packets four months prior to their clients’ scheduled hearings.

But according to at least one case manager, who I heard from my cell chastising a neighbor, this particular mandate is strictly ornamental. “Trying to [hold me accountable] for not getting you your packet is like me writing you up for that cover on your lamp…”

For this case manager, the following apparently doesn’t matter: 1) The imprisoned have no influence on the remainder of your life; 2) The imprisoned aren’t paid by the state to not handknit themselves a lampshade; 3) The imprisoned never interviewed to provide their potential caseload with the papers required to reunite them with their loved ones.

What all case managers know is that parole is not a given. It requires a hearing with plenty of planning and relies on the discretion of those who make the Board. Deliberative with details, they require much information; and like other judicial hearings, it’s not to be taken lightly.

Which is why when packets for August arrived in September, several on my unit found themselves in a panic.

CCM Hottinger, I wrote Ms. Hutchins a concern form asking for an extension on…my personal history questionnaire. I woke up for breakfast on the morning of September 16 and it was lying on the floor in front of my cell door. The date it’s due is 9-27-21. That leaves me just 11 days to prepare a whole parole plan and fill out two lengthy and complex questionnaires! If I would’ve just gotten it when I was suppose to…I would’ve had two months [to work on it]. I had to push the issue to even get it at all! I feel a two week extension, all things considered, is appropriate. Don’t you?

The concern was returned with this unsurprising response:

You can take as long as you need but if the [pre-hearing investigator] schedules your hearing and it isn’t ready, that is on you. It does not take more than a few days to complete it if you have prepared for this as much as you say you have.

Though my neighbor is a man who just lost his mother–the person he relied upon to assist with his parole plan–his represents neither an isolated incident nor a special-needs example. Collecting the information required for the parole hearing interview is, in fact, an incredibly tedious process. One that entails collaborative communication between counselors, case managers, families, physicians, landlords and employers–just to name a few. And without access to the internet or reliable use of the phone, it can take several weeks to place your best forward and make the case on paper that you’re ready for parole. Eight working days is not enough time.

The IDOC Parole Hearing Interview Packet has since been transcribed and made available here. If you know of someone soon up for parole, please help prepare them for their pre-hearing interview: they’ll be asked to provide letters of reference and verification; criminal, work, treatment, scholastic and military history; histories from family and/or people they’ll be living with; and prospective employment, housing and treatment programs details–with primary and secondary plans required for all.
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THE PERSONAL ACCOUNTS WE PURGE FROM OUR RECORDS
by Jason Hodge and Patrick Irving

IDOC records rules have changed. Not long ago the Department discontinued the centralized storage of resident concerns. Several staff were recently asked and said that the forms used to communicate issues are now held only by the person to whom they were addressed. “For no longer than a year,” per the typical response. Once that year is up, unless formally escalated and filed as a grievance–a process many opt to forego for fear of retaliation or a lack of results in the past–all concerns of safety, treatment and procedural confusion are unceremoniously purged from the public domain.

The rule change coincides with new IDOC commitments to operate transparently, as well an a addiction awareness campaign led by prominent members of Idaho media. Though they continue requesting more compassion for the addicted and mentally ill, their coverage shies away from the substandard treatment offered in our prisons.

So how about a better look at who and what we throw away?

8-25-21
To: B- Unit Clinician, Mr. Baumgartner

I would like a form to release my State Hospital South (SHS) records to you for reevaluation. Specifically, I would like to evaluate the possibility of getting back on the medication they put me on. Corizon told me when I got to [the Reception and Diagnostic Unit] they couldn’t afford some of the medication I was on, so I got off. Maybe this new provider won’t sacrifice our health and well-being to save a buck?

Re: Fill this out and just send it back to me so we have it and I will talk to the provider about it.
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9-2-21
To: Policy Coordinator

Do policies stand as written or can information be added to them to make them fit a situation?

Reply: The answer is ‘no’. Policies are broad statements that generalize the intent of what the agency wants to accomplish. SOPs provide the details of how that intent will be carried out, but still must stay within the same scope.
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9-8-21
To: CCM Hottinger

According to SOP 607.26.01.014, sec. 14-4, I am to be given a Commission of Pardons and Parole personal history questionnaire FOUR MONTHS BEFORE my parole hearing. I have repeatedly mentioned to you I have a parole hearing in Dec. That’s 3 months away, which exceeds the above mentioned policy. I should’ve gotten the questionnaire around the time you went beyond the scope of written policy to erroneously make a [Violent Risk Appraisal Guide] assessment on me. Could I please get the questionnaire? Thank you for your time and consideration CCM Hottinger, have a great day.
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9-11-21
To: Clinician M. Baumgarter

Mr. Baumgartner, I did make an issue about my medications when I got to ISCI’s RDU unit in July 2017. I was still on my meds then, and it took a lot of tests and trials over the years to find the right combination that works, so I don’t know why you can’t find anything in the computer. The reason I was given why I could no longer receive “some” of my meds was cost. My family owns businesses and has money. Maybe they can make up the difference? I need to get this figured out to see what my options are. Maybe if I had better control of my mental health, I could make better decisions?

Reply: At this point our only real options are for you to have an initial assessment, send that to the provider and have you seen for med options.
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9-15-21
To: Correctional Case Manager Hottinger

I still haven’t received an answer back on the concern form I sent you regarding my Personal History Questionnaire Packet. You said it’s not your job to pass [it out], that it’s someone else’s job and you replied back to me with their name. I still haven’t gotten your response or their name. I have an upcoming hearing and would like to prepare for it. I need that person’s name please. Thank you.

Reply: Her name is AA Hutchins. I don’t know what is wrong with the mail because the packet was put in the bag on Monday and my reply on Tues.
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9-16-21
To: AA Hutchins

Ms. Hutchins, I woke up this morning and found a personal history questionnaire under my cell door. It said it’s due to be turned in by 9-27-21. That is just 11 days away! I am requesting an extension. According to policy 607.26.01.014…I am suppose to receive the questionnaire 4 months BEFORE my hearing. I received it 6 weeks late. Now I only have a week and a half to prepare a whole parole plan and fill out 2 lengthy and complex questionnaires. If I would’ve gotten it when I was suppose to, I would’ve had plenty of time. I need a little more time. Thank you.

Reply: This was discussed w/ CCM Hottinger. [Signed by CCM Hottinger]
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9-16-21
To: Public Records Custodian

On August 22nd I submitted two (2) separate public records requests to your office. Your office received them on August 24th and granted my requests. The attached form said “you should receive these documents in the mail soon.” I have yet to receive any documents…and would like to know their status. I tried calling your office this morning but couldn’t get through to either number I have. Thank you for your time and consideration.
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9-22-21
To: Jesse Winkelman, Constituent Services

I just received your response to my public records request dated 9-3-21, which you granted in part and denied in part. In your notice of action you stated you attached the documentation on programs. I never received any attachments. Can you please send me the granted information? I have been getting a lot of granted requests where the documents were to be attached or sent by mail but never showed up. I am still waiting on documents from late August. Might it be best if my family stops by your office and picks up the documents?
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9-22-21
To: Clinician Baumgarter

Just so I am clear and straight on the issue, Mr. Baumgarter, you can’t find any reports or files (other than what I’ve given you) from State Hospital South on my treatment there, or information on the medications I was on when I entered IDOC July of 2017, nor would any such above mentioned factor in or even be considered if I was to request an initial evaluation? I just want to figure out my mental health, sir.

Reply: Outside of the information on the [pre-sentence investigation report] there is no records of meds or hospital stays. I would include such information in an assessment. However, your current approach to treatment would rely heavily on current reported and observed symptoms*
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9-26-21
To: Jesse Winkelman, Constituent Services

I was instructed to contact you regarding my two missing public records requests from late August. I still have not received the two requests granted on Augus 24th, but [you said] that you did send them. You are an educated professional and your integrity is not in question. I’m not saying that you didn’t send them, just that I never received them. If I have to pay a charge or have my family stop by and pick them up, that’s good by me. I would just like to resolve this and get the granted documents. Thank you for your time and consideration.
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Multiply by decades and again by several thousand and you’ll have a vague idea of who and what we throw away.

*Whatever symptoms can be observed floating by a window, three times a week at most, to verify he’s still alive.
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AN UPDATE ON THE STAFFING SITUATION

Along with new hire and employee retention bonuses, an increase in prison wages appears to be taking effect. Over 130 new applications were reported following a job fair held in September. Though hourly starting wages have been raised from $16.75 to $19.00 for new hires, legislative action will be required to make the pay raise permanent.

Probation and Parole officers, also experiencing staffing issues, were not included in this round of incentives.

According to the Idaho Press, prison workers employed at Ontario’s Snake River Correctional Institution are still making $3.64 an hour more than they would in Idaho.

According to minutes from July’s Board of Correction meeting, the day of their release, workers who started at CS Beef while incarcerated are still making $3.00 an hour more than IDOC’s newest recruits.

Source: Ryan Suppe, Idaho Press, “After Pay Boost, Department of Corrections Sees Applicant Spike.”
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AN UPDATE FROM DIRECTOR TEWALT

As the state continues experiencing the Delta variant, Idaho has seen COVID-19 cases increase rapidly since July. On July 1st, the state recorded 91 positive cases, and in the month of September, the state averaged over 1,000 new cases per day, with several days nearing the 2,000 mark. As a result, hospitals statewide have become overwhelmed and the state has instituted crisis standards of care.

We’re not immune to what’s happening in the community. Within IDOC, we’ve seen the number of staff testing positive increase significantly. In April, May, June and July, we saw less than 10 cases in each month, but from 8/23-9/23, we had 72 new positive cases [among staff]. That’s 10x the cases we had in July. On the resident side of the house, we saw resident cases stay under 50 for April, May and June. In July the number climbed to 56, and continued climbing to 137 in August, and 156 as of September 24.

Moving forward, you can expect weekly updates out of my office or the Incident Command Team’s. As a reminder(,) we also update the website weekly with figures on testing, positive cases, and vaccination rates.

[Originally posted 9-24-21 on the IDOC website.]
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COVID NEWS

Since the start of COVID, over 45,000 tests have been administered to IDOC residents housed in-state, with no testing this year for those housed in Arizona.

Last month we incorrectly reported over 5,200 residents have identified positive. The number is believed to have been closer to be 4,200. View IDOC’s current COVID statistics here.

Idaho courts have placed jury trials on hold again. It’s unclear when they will resume.

The visiting situation remains extremely fluid. IDOC’s website should provide the latest news.

Staff are being surveyed to gauge their interest in a booster shot. Meanwhile, several residents who missed out on the first round of vaccinations are still waiting for the follow-up promised in July.

Those with COVID concerns are invited to forward their grievances to:

ACLU Idaho
PO Box 1897
Boise, ID 83701
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RENICK ON THE RADIO

With over five years of episodes available for streaming, Mark Renick hosts Victory Over Sin on Boise’s KBXL 94.1Fm, Saturdays at 12:30 pm.

This month Mark introduced the newest members of the RECON recovery team, Sara Hill and Carey Weber. Both have extensive experience with individualized reentry work and are excited to work as coaches and be of community service.

Activist author Aaron Kocharski from the Recovery Advocacy Project brought his advocate history and organizational skills to the show. Aaron will be working with Mark in the very near future to organize recovery efforts all throughout Idaho. Learn more about the Recovery Advocacy Project @ recoveryvoices.com.

Learn more about Mark’s reentry effort @ svdpid.org and svdpid.org/advocacy-systemicchangeofid.
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RESIDENT AUDITING 101

Board of Correction minutes for 2021 are now available. View them online @ www.idoc.idaho.gov/content/directors_office/board_of_correction.

Following months of requests for policy outlining Ad–Seg hearing and release procedures, this response was delivered without attribution: “[The policy] is currently being reviewed and no documents are available at this time.” This is now the third year the policy has been in review.

Per a public records requests for figures pertaining to program funding: “[IDOC] does not receive Federal or State money specific to delivering programs, nor does IDOC cost the program by residents.”

A request for IMSI’s staffing levels returned figures showing 124/167 positions were filled in the month of September. According to IMSI staff, however, there have been days where staffing levels were 55%. A wide array of operational disruptions have us leaning towards the numbers provided by facility staff.

A request for reports pertaining to violent or confrontational incidents at IMSI from Jan. 1 to Aug. 15, after being granted, was lost in the mail.

Same with a request for 2021 and 2022’s fiscal budget.

Constituent Services Manager Jesse Winkelman recommends those with public records concerns contact him directly at 208-658-2134, a number that is not answered when dialed from our facilities.
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INMATE SERVICES AT WORK

9-19-21

Dear Senator Burgoyne,

Thank you for responding to my last letter with an interest in exploring more correctional programs. Enclosed is one I designed from Administrative Segregation. It cost me practically nothing, and while I continue to shop it around, thus far IDOC has yet to acknowledge the effort or express any interest. Perhaps it would pay for the Department to include community feedback when exploring future options? Please consider the idea as you approach deliberation.

The presentation I’ve enclosed can be found at bookofirving82431.com

Respectfully,
Patrick Irving 82431
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SUGGESTION BOX

I suggest formalizing the criteria that allows one to choose whether they themselves are to be held to policy, and then making it available for those few to further ignore.
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Thanks for sticking with me, folks, and for ignoring the fact that I probably missed a few edits.

See you soon.

“Rude Mood”
–Stevie Ray Vaughan (amp) Double Trouble

Next: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter, Nov. ’21

Previous: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter, Aug. ’21

WELCOME to the September 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, cut and paste, or print and send a copy to another.
…

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 are encouraged to join the Idaho Inmate Family Support Group (IIFSG) on Facebook, or contact them at idahoinmate@gmail.com.
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EDITOR’S NOTE

Sadly, with this month comes news of a loss. One of our IIFSG admins is no longer with us. At thirty-nine years old, with two kiddos at home and a hubby stuck in Arizona, Kelly was drafted by that all-star softball team in the sky, where she’ll have untethered access to her true crime documentaries, as well as the real-time thoughts of all you heathens who have yet to perpetrate famously.

Says of her friend, Kelly’s fellow admin, Diamond, “A few years ago, right after IDOC moved the first group to Texas, Denise and I put a townhall event together… When we asked for volunteers to help research, Kelly jumped in head first. From then on we became best friends. She lit up the room whenever she walked in. She understood my brain. I feel so lost without her.”

Please join us in extending the warmest of thoughts to Kelly’s family, her friends, and all those in our community who, through her work, she touched.

In Kelly’s name we grind–let’s First Amend This!
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UNDERSTAFFING UNDERSTATED AND UNDOUBTEDLY UNSAFE

According to email records obtained by the Idaho Statesman, Idaho’s prison workers have been imploring lawmakers to address facility understaffing for months.

With concerns ranging from inmate-to-staff ratios to falling asleep while driving home after working consecutive shifts, they’ve gone so far as to call for the National Guard.

Helping to illustrate their point that current conditions are unsafe for everyone, multiple incidents early August caught the attention of Idaho news.

At the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, the same facility reported by the Statesman to have medical clinicians manning desks meant for security, a clash between 18 residents took place when staff pushed the wrong buttons, remotely unlocking their doors. One week later, according to the Statesman, a paralegal at the Idaho State Correctional Center was hospitalized following a violent attack. The very next day, under the same roof, an incident involving 22 inmates resulted, again, from a simple push of buttons. And though staff were said to have responded immediately to that incident, according to several involved in the IMSI melee, the immediate response that they saw was all of two people–not nearly enough, even with chemical agents, to prevent the ambitious from doing serious damage to each other.

With facility lockdowns occurring more frequently, amenities such as phone calls, showers and out-of-cell time become scarce. What follows is frustration widely felt among residents. The results of which is often predictable, with no shortage of witnesses, warnings and incidents in the past.

In an effort to respond to the staffing crisis, Idaho Governor Brad Little and his Department of Correction have begun boosting hourly pay and offering a range of bonuses. The incentives submitted in the the Department’s fiscal budget on September 1st will need the approval of the Legislature to continue.

Sources: Hayat Norimine, “Female Staffer Beaten by Inmate in Idaho Department of Correction Prison South of Boise “, Idaho Statesman. Ryan Suppe, “Idaho Correctional Officers Getting Pay Bump, Bonuses,” The Spokesman Review.
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IDOC GRANTS GEO $250K TO CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS ON TRAUMA-AFFECTED CITIZENS

Last November IDOC distributed $1,826,076 in CARES Act grants to several businesses licensed in Idaho. The grants were awarded to applicants whose primary function fit one of three categories: forensic peers, crisis services, and trauma intervention. The funds were to be used over an eighteen-month period to provide services as-needed to IDOC clients. This in attempt to mitigate recidivism and ease carceral overcrowding during COVID.

Of the eight applications selected by department Director Josh Tewalt and Deputy Director Bree Derrick, six were chosen for their peer support services; the other two, selected for trauma intervention.

They are as follows: the Peer Wellness Center–Boise; the Kootenai Recovery Community Center–Coeur d’Alene; the Southeast Idaho Behavioral Crisis Center–Pocatello; the Center for Hope–Idaho Falls; Recovery In Motion–Twin Falls; GEO Reentry Services–Boise; and the Crisis Center of South Central Idaho–Twin Falls.

According to guidelines set forth in the application process, the grants were not be used for alcohol, lobbying, or services not described in the Department’s request for proposals.

Curiously, conducting experiments was not only not restricted, but encouraged to the tune of $250K. That was the amount GEO was awarded to form an experimental group of trauma-affected subjects and use them to test therapies such as Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (CBT). According to documents obtained by this reporter, GEO’s grant proposal also outlined plans for a control group’s participation in the experiment: “[I]dentified as having trauma-related issues, [the control group] will not receive EMDR treatment and will only participate in the CBT groups provided at [GEO’s] Connection and Intervention Station (CIS).”

Why a Florida-based private prison company currently holding an IDOC contract worth $4.5M feels the need to spend a $250K grant confirming the extensive bank of EMDR findings cited in not just theirs but all IDOC-CARES trauma service proposals isn’t exactly clear. Though one might suspect that by eliminating EMDR treatment for half of their clients, GEO is much more likely to meet the quota outlined in their CIS contract, which allows them to pocket the extra $225,000 previously negotiated as a performance incentive.

One might even speculate that the actual experiment is whether GEO can get away with charging for tier-level treatment the same way they do with their new halfway housing. Their first priority, after all, is taking care of their shareholders who are unlikely to see profit profit margins for halfway treatments as their foe.
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CORIZON HEALTH IS OUT, CENTURION HEALTH IS IN

IDOC’s medical provider is said to be changing from Corizon Health to Centurion Health on October 1, 2021.

According to Centurion’s website, Centurion is a leading national provider of healthcare services to justice-involved persons across 16 states, including 12 state correctional agencies.

The change in providers comes roughly a year after Corizon Health was purchased by an investment group that specializes in procuring poorly functioning companies and making improvements to upgrade their financial performance.

In November of 2020, Corizon was reported by Prison Legal News to have accumulated 660 malpractice lawsuits in the five years prior.

Centurion, a company with approximately twice as many employees as Corizon Health, has also had its share of heinous claims and lawsuits, to include a least one from none other than Corizon. Amid claims in Tennessee that Centurion has been bid-rigging contracts by paying politicians, Corizon recently filed complaints to the courts stating that the company has been treated unfairly and making accusations of Centurion involvement in scandals.

Though not quite as traumatic as losing your limbs or your loved ones due to the deliberate indifference of doctors on duty–or giving birth to your baby on a concrete slab while the nurse that you’re screaming at writes you up for faking–Corizon’s complaint does raise a few questions. Like how is Centurion bidding so much higher than its competitors and continuing to land contracts in multiple states?

Thus far, Centurion has also replaced Corizon as a DOC medical provider in Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Arizona and Florida. And the list of politicians they’ve been contributing to is long. Reading like a “who’s who” of power players in state politics, one can’t help but wonder who they’ve offered to fund here in Idaho.

Sources: Lauren Castle, “New Prison Health-Care Provider Has History of Problems, Donations to Politicians,” azcentral.com. Rudi Keller, “Missouri Prison Healthcare Contract Won By Company Accused of Bid-Rigging in Tennessee,” tennesseelookout.com. Matt Clarke, “Investment Firm Buys Corizon,” Prison Legal News.”
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A STOCKHOLM ADVOCATE INSTALLMENT

It seems like every month now we find ourselves ignored trying to seek some resolution in the way that we’ve been directed to make the request. After weeks of citing policies and navigating processes our concerns are returned with “Yeah, but so what?” It’s a culture of administrative indifference that we find to be frustrating. And we’re not alone in our frustrations, for staff have to deal with it too.

To illustrate the absurdity of it all, this month we’ve rendered twelve-pages of policy to show how our staff are encouraged to solve their problems at work.

IDOC Policy 203: Problem Solving

Idaho Code Section 67-5315 establishes an employee problem-solving procedure for any nondisciplinary, job related matters.

Here’s how it works:

Upon becoming aware of the job-related problem-solving matter, you have ten (10) working days to hold an informal meeting with your immediate supervisor. If there is no resolution to the matter, the Problem-Solving Request Form must be filed with the appropriate appointing authority within the same ten (10) working days.

Within five (5) working days of receiving the request, the appointing authority will assign it to an appropriate Level One Supervisor. The HRS director or designee and the appointing authority will then determine the appropriate supervisory level to assign based on the issue and availability of the Level One supervisor.

Within five (5) working days, or as amended in writing, after the request for problem-solving is assigned, the appropriate Level One supervisor will hold a meeting, suggest a resolution, and attach a response to the Problem-Solving Request Form before returning it to the problem-solving manager.

If you believe the Level One supervisor’s proposed solution requires further consideration, the Problem-Solving Request Form, Step 3 must be completed within five (5) working days and forwarded to the appointing authority.

Within five (5) working days of receiving the request for Level Two review, the appointing authority will assign the request for problem-solving to the Level Two Supervisor. Within five (5) working days, or as amended in writing, after assignment of the request for Level Two problem-solving, the Level Two supervisor may consult with you and your immediate supervisor separately, and then the Level One supervisor before holding a meeting and/or providing a written response with the Final Decision of the Problem-Solving Process.

If the Level Two supervisor is below the level of the appointing authority, the appointing authority will approve or amend the problem-solving decision developed at Level Two.

The Level Two supervisor will then provide you with a written response, complete Step 3 on the Problem Solving Request Form and submit the completed form, along with the Level Two supervisor’s response and solution, to the appointing authority, who will then forward it to HRS for retention.

This completes the problem solving process.

Unless, of course, you opt for mediation.

Mediation must be pursued in writing at the time of filing (Step 1) or at the beginning of Level Two (Step 3). The written request will be forwarded to the HRS director to review and forward the request to the division chief or designee for approval or non-concurrence.

If a mediator cannot be obtained in five (5) working days, the request to mediate will be declared void and problem solving will continue to the next level.

Should you believe the Department failed to grant a right and/or benefit that Idaho Code Section 67-5316 (1) (b) entitles you to, upon completion of the problem-solving procedure you may appeal the decision to the Idaho Personnel Commission within thirty-five (35) calendar days of the date the problem-solving concluded.

Refer to IDAPA 15.04.01, Rules of the Division of Human Resources and Idaho Personnel Commission (Section 201), and Idaho Code Section 67-5316 for the Appeal Procedure.

Because problem-solving timeframes are designed to expedite the resolution, failure to comply with the timeframes mandated by this policy may result in your loss of the right to continue the problem-solving process.

I mean, c’mon. Is there no better way to inspire problem-solving at work?
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PRISON FOOD SUPPLY DISRUPTED, PREPARE TO EAT YOUR CELLIE.
by J. Tyler, Dietary Manager

As you may have 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 greatly slowed. And all these factors come at a time when stimulus money has increased consumer demand for goods, so the overall demand is greater than supply, and the U.S. is stuck playing catch up.

What this means for IDOC is that although there is enough food and other consumables available, there isn’t always the full quantity of specific items available to us, and 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 we are often not given advance notice of delivery changes. Please know that I am working daily with “our suppliers” to ensure that our menus have as much variety as possible, and I review every item change to ensure “nutrient standards” continue to be met. There is plenty of “food” to go around, it just may not always be what is on the “standard menu.”

We ask for your understanding and your patience while we serve you new Unknowns.
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POLICIES, RECORDS AND REASONABLE EXPLANATIONS–JOIN AS WE HUNT FOR THEM IN AUDITING 101.

For all of our up-and-coming auditors out there, we’ve still not been able to obtain an active policy that establishes the criteria and procedures for periodic review of inmates in long-term restrictive housing, criteria and procedures for the release of inmates from long-term restrictive housing, and the guidelines to ensure that RHU residents receive three or more hours out-of-cell time daily.

A recent request for the last available draft of Long-Term Restrictive Housing Policy 319.02.01.003 was returned with a response suggesting one doesn’t exist. We know this isn’t true, for we’ve preciously procured a physical copy of the 2018 document, and it’s referenced by number in the current version of Policy 319.02.01.001.

Another request asking specifically for the guidelines referenced by Policy 319 was returned with a 2011 version of 319.02.01.001, which residents no longer have access to. Which is curious considering how the 2018 version we’re now using is missing the criteria, guidelines and procedures in question.

Public records misdirection and outright refusals are becoming more frequent as we make requests. We’re beginning to suspect that we’re not the only ones misdirected. So, be sure to note if your requests are returned with items missing or with conflicting dates and data.

As a reminder, per Public Records Requests Policy 108.00.01.00, the day-to-day business operations of the Department are to be made available upon request. This includes the Board of Correction meeting minutes, legislation, contracts, budget information, financial records, correspondence, policies and SOPs, program information and program audits.

So if you’re among those who, say, have been refused 2021’s Board of Correction meeting minutes because they have yet to be posted, you might want to try submitting a new request for all the notes, drafts and emails composed at the time of the meeting.

Please note that grievances regarding public records refusal will not be processed, but responded to with this: “[Y]ou have the right to appeal the denial of your request by filing a petition in conformance with the provisions of Idaho Records Law, Title 74, Chapter 1, Idaho Code. The petition must be filed in the Fourth Judicial District Court of the State of Idaho within one hundred eighty (180) calendar days of the date of mailing this notice.”

Resident auditors are asked to keep copies of their findings, as well as their grievances, for future collaborations.
…

COVID NEWS

Since the start of COVID, approximately 43,000 tests have been administered to IDOC residents, while zero have been administered this year to Idaho inmates housed in Arizona. More than 5,200 have identified positive and a total of six deaths have been reported as COVID-related.

Approximately 74% of IDOC residents were fully vaccinated in June. Those who refused the first round of vaccinations were told they’d be offered again in approximately one month. This has yet to happen at IMSI. Other facilities may be waiting as well.

At least 52 of the 410 residents housed at the Northern Idaho Correctional Institution tested positive this month.

It was announced early August by Director Tewalt that the Department will begin pausing demobilization activities to protect from the Delta variant, now found in our facilities. That said, we hear that SICI and ISCI are open for visiting.

ACLU Idaho and the law firm Shearman & Sterling will remain in close contact with IDOC while continuing to monitor all COVID-related issues. Those with concerns are invited to forward their grievances to:

ACLU Idaho
PO Box 1987
Boise, ID 83701

View IDOC’s COVID numbers here.
…

RENICK ON THE RADIO

With over 100 episodes available for streaming, Mark Renick hosts Victory Over Sin on Boise’s KBXL 94.1FM, Saturdays at 12:30 pm.

This month Chief of Prisons Chad Page discussed his path through Corrections to the post he’s at now and shared new approaches being taken by the current administration.

Best-selling author in recovery Jason Combs presented his experience, outlooks, sobriety and faith. Jason currently works with Brick House Recovery, a faith-based center that provides mid-level care for people coming out of residential treatment or incarceration–located in Boise and Idaho Falls. Contact Jason at The Recovery Movement on Facebook or info@brickhouserecovery.com.

Heidi Barker, a recovery coach for St. Vincent de Paul’s RECON program, discussed her recovery coach training, her background, and her long list of qualifications that make her perfect for the job.

Mark works with a reentry effort under an advocacy arm of St. Vincent de Paul. Learn more @ svdpid.org and systemicchangeofid.com.
…

IN THE FORUMS

According to members of the Idaho Inmate Family Support Group, ISCC Warden Ramirez has announced on social media that he and ICSI Warden Christensen will soon be retiring.

It’s said that IMSI’s Warden Davis will then to be moving to ISCI, while ISCI’s deputy warden of operation will be finding a place at IMSI. Meanwhile, the deputy of security from ISCI is expected to move to SBWCC, though it’s not yet clear the position they’re assuming.

It appears we’re preparing to move some more to Arizona. With emails sent and property packed, the number awaiting transit is currently unknown.
…

INMATE SERVICES AT WORK

8-17-21

To: IDOC Executive Financial Officer

I’ve been trying to track down where all our inmate donations go — the property items we “donate” following their confiscation. I recently submitted a public records request for the list of charities we’ve been donating to, the criteria by which they’re chosen, and at least one receipt showing a charitable transaction has taken place. My public records request was returned with “no records found.” Can you please help me understand this? We’ve done a great deal of “donating” for an awful lot of years, and it seems rather odd there are no records to be found.

–Patrick Irving 82431
…

MORE ON IDAHO’S PRISON PROBLEMS

Feel free to check these links for some additional perspective.

Idaho Inmate Family Support Group
idahojusticeproject.org
jailmedicine.com
idahoprisonarts.org
idahoprisonproject.org
svdpid.org/advocacy-systemicchangeofid
idahoprisonblog.blogspot.com
www.idoc.idaho.gov
…

That it’s for the month. Thank you again for your audience. Stay out of trouble the best that you can and we’ll do it again in October.

Wake Me Up When September Ends
— Green Day

Next: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter Oct. ’21

[This is not my official proposal, but it’s enough to get one started if they want to do their own.]

This proposal requires minimal assistance and can be scaled to adjust from one single participant to the entire population of any DOC.

Some variation of this proposal will soon be submitted to the Idaho Department of Correction in effort to address and meet the following needs of their Close Custody and Restricted Housing Unit residents: 1) the need for opportunities to engage in constructive behaviors; 2) the need for positive reinforcement and encouragement from peers and unit staff; 3) the need to explore relationships with community partners and peer support networks prior to being released from prison. An emphasis must be placed on need three’s importance, as those who are released with their sentences terminated are much less likely to be referred to resources for crisis intervention than those who are released under the Department’s supervision.

Note: Among my peers this program is referred to as a project. Because the word “program,” in prison, comes with negative connotations, and because Idaho prison programs are not known to be inclusive; they tend to only accept participants that match a certain criteria.

This project aims to be open to Everyone.

The pilot was conducted for $150: $100 in books, $50 in correspondence — with book donations resulting from correspondence.

Those who are incarcerated with access to a library can pilot their own version for no cost at all.

Here’s how it works:

One reads through materials with restorative properties — therapeutic, educational, explorational, etc.– and then reflects through reports how the materials affect them. Having internalized and extrapolated in the name of convalescence, they then pass the product on to their case manager, asking them to file it as a signal that they’re being productive. Once filed it remains in their record to be referenced in the future for interviews and hearings (disciplinary, Board, Ad-Seg, worker, classification, program, etc.).

Below is an example of one of my reports.
—

Patrick Irving 82431
8-13-21 08:48

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

This book was donated by idahoprisonproject.org, to assist with the reflective reading program I’m piloting from Ad-Seg.

Finding it important to absorb as much perspective as possible, I can say that I very much valued this 1963 bestseller, “written as two letters but best read as essays,”* by a Harlem-raised, civil rights warrior. His critical examinations, ranging from society to the Church to the Black Panther Party, were passionate and insightful and presented without anger. For me, this book illustrates the danger of propelling generalizations and, quite brilliantly, frames the anguish of what a spiraling nightmare it is to be the victim of rationales used to justify indignities — whether it be those who’ve survived cell B54 at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, or those who’ve found themselves drowning in a system of arbitrary constructs used to promote love with hate and waste away the human resource.

Possibly not a read one would expect from me, the way that I’ve been labeled in IDOC computers. But that’s only because the Department’s never asked whether I come from a friendly, refugee-hosting, agnostic/church family, or how far we’ve gone out of our way to welcome Vietnamese, Congolese and Rwandans into our home.

Definitely a read I’d recommend to my peers.
—

Of the materials below, chosen for my trial, several were donated by a Dean’s List university student studying in Idaho to work for Probation & Parole. Others were purchased upon suggestions from behavioral health specialists and IDOC CARES grant recipients. A forum of justice-affected families and their proponents also contributed recommendations, several of which were picked for the peer support component: having been shared among their group already, the group is prepared to encourage their loved ones to read and discuss the materials they recommended. Yet more contributions came from idahoprisonproject.org, a Christian radio program that addresses incarceration and reentry, multiple prison book programs, the author’s friends and family, a South Carolina poetry review, and one Princeton University Associate Professor.

Not listed are books from my facility library, as this author was punitively restricted from accessing all library materials for a period of 90 days during the course of this trial.

The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz
Prisons and Prison Life: Costs and Consequences by Joycelyn M. Pollock
Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison by Bruce Western
Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor M. Rios
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté, MD
Where to Draw the Line: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Every Day by Anne Katherine M.A.
The Soloist by Steve Lopez
The Girl in My Wallet by Teresa Nickell
We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For: The Promise of Civic Renewal in America by Peter Levine
Civic Activism Unleashed: New Hope or False Dawn For Democracy by Richard Young
Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction by John Monaghan & Peter Just
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradbury and Jean Greaves
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The PTSD Workbook by Mary Beth Williams Ph.D., LCSW, CTS and Soila Poijula Ph.D.
Wife After Prison: Caught in the Aftermath by Sheila Bruno
Asheville Poetry Review by Various Authors
The Everything American Government Book by Nick Ragone
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks
The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America by Naomi Murakawa
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler

ADDITONAL NOTES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

DOCs may wish to consider incentivizing staff to become familiar with program participants and selected materials, so as to engage in brief yet thoughtful exchanges that help one reflect and further expound.

Case managers should introduce their caseload to this project with an “optional” reading list and simple set of instructions. Instructions should encourage also logging reads not on the list. Case managers should be given a shelf or a box for selected materials, so that they and not the library are responsible for meeting requests. Case managers should be encouraged to engage in brief yet thoughtful exchanges while collecting returns and delivering materials.

Discussion groups should be encouraged but not required.

Peer and staff reviews should also be encouraged but not required, so as to help expose the simplicity of the program and percolate interest among populations socially. A simple signature on a submission would suffice as a review. But it doesn’t matter who the signature belongs to, or if they actually reviewed. What matters is the interaction that takes place during the signing helps to expose and normalize the project, seeding future participation and discussion among peers.

DOCs already working closely with peer support, community networks are encouraged to solicit participation and support, suggestions and feedback.

Program participants, including staff, should be permitted to contribute materials to the program. This with the understanding that a voting, lottery or review system may need to be implemented to choose which contributions will be stored in the space allotted for their materials.

All questions, critique, and comments are welcome.

*Quotes belong to the peer that contributed the book.

“All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands”
–Sufjan Stevens

IDOC Division Chief of Prisons Chad Page informed IDOC’s resident population April 30 and again on June 17, 2021 that IDOC requirements for book vendors were changing. This change has not been reflected on IDOC’s website, nor has the change made several years ago that since has allowed for hardcover books. As a result, books sent in from peer and family supporters, ministries, schools and organizations are being returned without notice to the intended resident recipients.

Please take notice of the following memo if you’re looking to support our residents with books.

[A personal note to Princeton Professor M.– No need to worry, I’ve arranged for your books. It was a wonderful surprise. Thank you very much!]

MESSAGE REPOST MEMO 4/30/21 FROM CHAD PAGE, CHIEF OF PRISIONS – APPROVED VENDORS FOR BOOKS

April 30, 2021, Offender Population
Chad Page, Chief of Prisons, Approved Vendors for Books.

Due to places such as Amazon Marketplace, Bargain Books Store, and Barnes and Noble allowing 3rd parties to have access to incoming books, we have seen a large increase in contraband.

Starting June 1, 2021, all books and magazines must come from one of the approved vendors listed below, or directly from the publisher.

This notice will allow you 30 days (April 30th through May 31st) to notify your family of these changes. After May 31st, all incoming books from outside these vendors, and books that arrive without a receipt or invoice, will be returned to sender in accordance with SOP 402.02.01.001 Mail Handling in Correctional Facilities, Section 18.

Edward R Hamilton
Discover Books [Update 7/31/2024 – Discover Books appears to be out of business]
More than Words
Prison Book Program
Books to Prisoners

Vendors added on 7/15/2022:

Books a Million
Books N Things
Sure Shot Books

Vendors removed on 7/15/2022:
ThriftBooks

As of 2024, hardback books are no longer allowed.

If you have books sent in through a religious ministry, the ministry must be listed as the publisher on the book.

Educational textbooks — facility Education departments will assist residents with the purchasing of necessary textbooks for course work.

Previous: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter, July ’21 (Si Kahn Tribute Issue)

WELCOME to the August 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, cut and paste, or print and send a copy to another.
…

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.
…

EDITOR’S NOTE

Our compliments to the staff who’ve decided to stick around. Those who perform their daily duties without passing down their stress don’t go unnoticed. We appreciate it much.

This month we touch on the announcement that our facilities are understaffed and offer a few factors that were overlooked by local news. We also report on an incident used by the Department as a reason to continue ignoring Restricted Housing Unit (RHU) policies; and–when a reasonable query into resident donations meets an odd resistance, a mystery unfolds. (Likely into a series that starts with this issue. I’m still trying to process–we’ll see how it goes.) Among some other tidbits, the summary of a grievance that takes issue with staff’s discretion to censor incoming case law and outgoing descriptions of incidents and issues residents have been involved in.

Your audience is appreciated.

Let’s First Amend This!
…

FACILITIES UNDERSTAFFED: EPIPHANIES NEED NOT APPLY

One day after July’s Board of Correction meeting, where it was announced by Human Resources Manager Mike Evans that our correctional facilities are severely lacking staff, the Idaho Maximum Security Institution foreshadowed the future on lockdown.

Or perhaps we should say it operated in consistency with the lockdowns we’ve dealt with for much of the past; as we expect it every Saturday, scheduled in advance–lockdowns resulting from facility understaffing have been affecting my unit for I don’t know how long. Acknowledged as an issue before COVID became a problem, in Grievance IM 200000280, understaffing was used as the reason for withholding out-of-cell time mandated by policy since 2018 (per policies 319 and 319.02.01.003).

Employee burnout compounded by quality-of-life factors were offered as a few reasons our facilities are missing one-fourth of their workforce. But left unmentioned was the disconnect between our staff and management. We often hear from personnel that their experience is not valued, and that much of the danger that stresses their job comes from decisions made behind desks. There is also a sentiment shared among our new recruits: Given the impression our facilities are a place to make a difference, they find themselves uncomfortable enforcing dysfunctional policies at the risk of their own safety and general well-being.

Our case managers, too, are among the extremely stressed. Unable to offer everyone restorative opportunities, they waste their education and training selling bureaucratic “waste plans”.

We feel that in addition to fiscal incentives, our personnel need a workplace more receptive to their professional concerns and suggestions. One that encourages them, when seeking solutions, to problem solve creatively and implement responsibly. In essence, a system that runs diametrically opposite to that which we use for our insentient residents…

EXHIBIT A

To Deputy Warden Wessels:

Because this prison is unable to offer therapeutic/educational opportunities to everyone, I’ve spent several months organizing materials that could benefit others…Some have come from IDOC’s community partners and other outside interests like the Idaho Inmate Family Support Group… But the library has informed me not all donations reach their shelves. Surely they could replace 1 of the 6 copies they have of The Hunger Games [with a book] on addiction and boundaries, etc. These are books my network is already promoting. Can you help us make sure, from now on, they find a shelf in the library?

From Deputy Warden Wessels: You grieved this issue.
—

To Deputy Warden Wessels:

Re: Request to create space for therapeutic materials donated from the community. Of the two issues grieved previously, one was your banning me from self-help materials; the other was Robertson not answering where book donations go. Neither grievance asked you to find it in your heart to create a little space for the materials coming in from the book drive I’ve been holding for the last six months in our IDOC newsletter…

From Deputy Warden Wessels: It is a space issue.
—

To Deputy Warden Wessels:

If you truly believe our massive desert constructions only have enough space for warehousing thousands of humans, then you’ll never have room for the growth of your residents and staff–just plenty for reasons why people won’t work here.

–Resident Alien Irving

Ref: “Idaho Department of Correction Faces Critical Staff Shortage,” Rachel Cohen. “Idaho Prisons Scrambling for Staff as Exhausted Correctional Officers Resign,” Katie Terhune.
…

WHERE HAVE ALL OUR DONATIONS BEEN GOING?

It’s not uncommon for residents to donate their property. At least, no more so than it is to have their property confiscated for taking too much space or being flagged as “altered.”

Whether it’s a clip that’s come loose from a low-quality lamp ($15), a shoelace used to keep a speaker attached to old headphones ($32), or a chip on the face of an unfortunate TV ($268), many are forced to relinquish the property they’ve purchased with funds from their family or penny-paid labor. And though they’re not always offered a choice when it comes to disposing the taken property, there are usually three options from which they can choose: They can either mail it out; donate it to charity; or sign off for staff to place it in the trash.

While sending it out seems like a reasonable option, this reporter once paid $15 to send a $12 book, and our most expensive property can be procured from pawn shops for about the same price we pay for packing and postage. Which means it’s often more appealing to donate our loss and receive the satisfaction of knowing it’s going to charity.

Books are especially easy to relinquish. “Donate to library,” we’re told to write on the inside, where each manuscript is stamped with its benefactor’s name. Under the impression it will be added to our facility’s library, we’re left with the feeling of building a better community by expanding the bank of knowledge we so desperately need.

It’s the same feeling responsible for our FAT! book drive, which ended in disappointment upon the shocking realization that many of our donations are rebuked by the Master of Libraries. He has them carted from the library, off with our property, either to unknown recipients or to be placed in the trash. He says it’s a matter of limited space–that a great deal of people have died in our prisons after decades of donating their time-filling reads, and we simply can’t expect to store the knowledge they’ve amassed just so it can be shared with survivors still breathing.

Which leaves us here at FAT! Headquarters wondering exactly where it all goes: the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of resident property that’s been taken by force and sold off in good favor.

When pressed by this reporter, IMSI’s Robertson said it’s none of our business. “[4]5 days after books are donated or confiscated, they are no longer the concern of the individual to whom they once belonged.”

The response was to a grievance that was lodged to break his silence (IM 210000276), and his position–as an educator–arouses great concern. For even IDOC librarians and educators aren’t immune to corruption or sex crimes, and to combat an interest in civic engagement opposes the very society and its institutes that privilege his career. And were a similar answer to be served to constituents not in prison, any politician, preacher or public official would be without a job by noon and marked for life by two.

Which is why it’s been decided of Robertson he meant to say this: “Beautiful question, sir. I could’ve been ripping you off all this time to fuel my affinity for crack cocaine and Thai boys. I recommend you submit a public records request to audit said donations and see where they go.”

So, in addition to the list of charities and the criteria by which they’re chosen, we also requested at least one receipt showing how our charitable transactions are tracked by the Department.

Our request was returned with “No Records Found.”

An estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of resident property and no system in place to say where it goes.

Years of prisoner contributions, allegedly donated to charity, and not one piece of evidence produced by the state to certify the claim or satisfy a probe. No guarantee they’re not going home with workers. Nothing to say they’re not offed in some alley. Not one receipt, not one listed charity, not one person buying this.

Where does it go?
…

THE DIRTY TRICKS THAT DID AWAY WITH OUR AD-SEG REFORM

One would get fired and arrested for alleged sexual misconduct with an inmate. The other, who knows? Nobody wants to say. But prior to their departure from Idaho Maximum Security Institution, two correctional officers quite possibly manufactured an incident that would prevent an increase in Ad-Seg staff’s duties.

The incident was reported as taking place in early 2020, when the two were tasked with testing a table enclosure designed to bring IMSI into compliance with Restricted Housing Unit policies. Since 2018, policies 319 and 319.02.01.003 have required RHU residents to spend at least three hours out of their cells daily. Also referred to as indoor rec modules, the table enclosures were to accommodate half of that time, with the other half to be spent in outdoor modules, already offered for one hour daily.

When the two assigned officers were ordered to test the indoor modules–four caged compartments conjoined around one table, built with an opening on the tabletop for hands to play out cards–they were said to have sought a test group that was destined to fail. According to a source who witnessed the event, they picked four people from adversarial walks (a walk is a small assigned social group of inmates): two from Hard walks and two from Soft walks, though never allowed at any other time to mingle, were picked as participants to provide a demonstration of the enclosures.

But all four of those chosen declined to play a part. Suspicious of the way they were pitted against opponents, they felt as though a plan was in place to set them up.

Of the second group approached to test the table enclosures, all four had allegedly already been reprimanded for throwing bodily fluids on each other and trying to flood each other out with a plumbing hack from their own cells. Said to be four of the most psychologically disturbed on the unit, “It was obvious to everyone what was about to happen.” Given notice in advance of who would be sharing the table, all four were said to have arrived with containers of bodily fluids, and immediately engaged in their preferred method of warfare.

The incident was logged, the experiment concluded, and further construction of the indoor modules was halted. Without an adequate representation of residents used to test the modules, they were branded “too dangerous,” and used not once thereafter.

“It’s frustrating,” says our source. “They know who gets along and they know who throws piss on each other. They keep it all logged right there on their computers. They just don’t want to spend the time it takes to put us in cuffs, walk us out to the dayroom and lock us in cages.”

It’s a hypothesis hard to dispute. For one thing, such info does exist in IDOC computers. It’s seen referenced often in reports from Investigations. For another, in Grievance IM 200000280, mentioned earlier in this issue, understaffing was used as the reason to ignore IDOC policies. Which means it could be tempting for staff who are already stressed to manufacture an incident that would eliminate more duties. And finally, the outdoor modules, used almost daily, are still not being used to the extent required by policy. This despite the fact that no extra staff would be needed and the extra half hour per group poses no immediate risk.

When asked last year why the extra half hour outside has yet to be implemented, IMSI’s Warden Tyrell Davis wrote this: “[It] will become effective after physical plant modifications are completed and staffing levels are addressed.”

As for all questions regarding the crude testing of the indoor modules, it’s the rule of Corrections not to revisit a method once you have achieved the results that will lighten your workload.
…

IDOC PROPOSES NEW PRISON AND IMPROVEMENTS TO OLD INFRASTRUCTURE

The Board of Correction voted in July to move forward with their proposal for a new women’s prison and an addition to the Idaho State Correctional Institution.

The proposal would add an additional 848 beds for women and roughly 200 beds for men.

First presented in February to the Board of Correction, the initial projected cost of approximately $130M has since been adjusted to roughly $170M, to include a 35% inflation rate of construction costs over the last five months.

It’s unclear how many months it will take to present the proposal to the governor’s office, Division of Financial Management, Idaho Legislature and other stake holders. It’s also unclear how many more tens of millions of dollars the proposal will be have to be adjusted for inflation by the time they’re done presenting.

Ref: Betsy Z. Russell, “New Women’s Prison Proposed South of Boise, Plus More Beds for Male Inmates,” Idahopress.com.
…

EXPECT PRISON VENDORS TO REPORT RECORD PROFITS

Prison vendors can expect to see record profits well into 2022.

As stimulus funds continue to funnel in to our country’s incarcerated, prison providers like Keefe find themselves unable to keep items in stock. From $0.32 squeeze cheeses to TV’s that cost upwards of $300, inmates are reporting months-long outages of multiple items. The shortages, due to an increase in demand, include items like hygiene, underwear, T-shirts and shoes.

With the “expected back in stock date” of many staples constantly changing, even substitutes are being purchased in a frenzy. Customers, less sensitive now to overpriced items, have found themselves ordering novelty goods, plus clothing comforts and appliances like hotpants and sweatpots 😉

Commissary services aren’t the only ones benefitting. Media services, phone and messaging providers, pen pal sites and other inmate services are expected to see spikes in revenue as well.

Those looking to gamble on trends may wish to place money on the notion that prison vendors will soon be seen lobbying for stimulus payments to the incarcerated on a regular basis.
…

COVID NEWS

While approximately 38,700 tests have been administered to IDOC residents in three states, those housed in Arizona have not been tested since they were transferred from GEO’s Eagle Pass Correctional Facility with a sizeable number of infected among them. Of those tested in other facilities, more than 4,450 have identified positive. A total of six deaths have been reported as COVID-related.

In early July the Department reported a staff vaccination rate of 45%, compared 73% among residents. And though the majority of staff are still wearing face coverings, they’re not being enforced to the extent they were before.

Fully vaccinated residents and staff with no known or suspected exposure to COVID are now considered excused from mass testing.

In late June a doctor accompanying the Idaho National Guard said vaccinations would be offered in five weeks to those who first refused them. Those at IMSI have not seen this happen. And with the spread of new variants and pending approval for Pfizer, a wave of residents have reported that they want them.

IDOC has initiated a formal demobilization plan to assess the risk of returning to normalized operations.

Visiting trials have begun in some facilities. Masks are required and visitation times are very limited.

Those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are reporting scores 7-9 points higher on their GED exams and a dramatic increase in demand for their seed.

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 grievances to:

ACLU Idaho
PO Box 1987
Boise, ID 83701

View IDOC’s COVID numbers here.
…

EXHAUSTED GRIEVANCE IN SUMMARY

Category: Policy or SOP
Date: 6/07/2021
Location: IMSI
Grievance Number: IM 210000239
Responders: Southwick, Susan Wessels, Tyrell Davis

This grievance addresses mail policy 402.02.01.001, section 3, bullet 9 — which prohibits residents from mailing case information involving codefendants and classes, and is worded in a way that allows legal resources and references to be censored also.

This grievance follows Grievance IM 210000152, which was lodged when a communication was censored for describing an incident the sender was involved in while relaying a request to family to inform and retain counsel. That grievance is available by request.

Ref: This grievance has been logged as Grievance 21 in “Exhausted Grievances In Summary (for legal and investigative purpose).”
…

SLANGIN’ KUDOS

Deputy Warden of Virtual Prisons Stephen Grills caught the attention of Idaho inmate families with loved ones in Arizona. They say they appreciate him ensuring compliance with the CoreCivic contract.

IMSI Grievance Coordinator T. Young has been making sure this reporter’s public records requests are being delivered to the records custodian. She doesn’t have to do it (it goes beyond her job description). By saving us both some grievances, she’s earned a sack of kudos.

IMSI’s entire B Unit staff, forever working overtime and interfacing with myriad stressors, remain professional and consistent with us animals in the back. For this reason we slang them some acknowledgement.

IMSI Property Officer Rodriguez has proven consistent and reliable since taking Property duties over. Either he’s got an amazing memory, or he’s actually taking some time to write our needs down. Whatever the case may be, thanks for getting it done.

Good job, everybody. Let’s hope it rubs off!
…

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 Ken Rogers and Norma Jager spoke on the event Poetry for Recovery, scheduled during Recovery Month in September. Ken also shared some reading and announced he’ll be holding an online poetry class for those interested until September.

Former Governor of Connecticut and current acting Director of Prison Fellowship John G. Rowland dropped in for some incredibly enlightening conversation. His understanding of politics and experience as a prisoner offered perspective unlikely to be found elsewhere.

Program Manager Rebecca White of the Hope and Recovery Center shared her involvement with Idaho prisons and outreach. Those interested in applying their experience to the field of professional counseling following a conviction will want to listen in.

Michael Richardson, the executive director of Idaho Prison Arts Collective, introduced the program he’s pioneering to bring more arts into Idaho prisons. His mission: to present the many experiences of the corrections community and inform the public through art how its been impacted collectively. Those interested are asked to write to:

IdahoPrisonArts.org
PO Box 1995
Boise, ID 83701

Off-air, Mark works with a reentry effort under an advocacy arm of St. Vincent de Paul. Learn more @ svdpid.org and imsihopecommunityphaseii.com.
…

INMATE SERVICES AT WORK

7-31-21

Dear Sir,

Thank you for responding to my letter. I would indeed be interested in questionnaires and info pertaining to recovery. Not only is there an incredible lack of literature here at my facility, but classes are only offered to those with dates for parole, and we’ve no anonymous meetings to participate in either. Add to that the fact that both the deputy warden and warden have upheld a ban on my access to self-help materials for 90 days, and even a pamphlet on abstinence right now would be appreciated.

While I value your idea of holding groups by Zoom, our case managers have neither the pull nor the ability to make something so sensible happen. That would likely require submitting a proposal to IDOC admin. And though I’d never dissuade you from presenting to just them, I would certainly stress to you the following point: If you truly have an interest in reaching our incarcerated, you may wish utilize your Idaho representatives. They’re well aware we’re in need of solutions, and have proven quite helpful at times.

I’m actually compiling a list of the legislators my network’s found receptive. I’d be happy to share it and coordinate future efforts.

Once again, I appreciate your thoughtful response. I hope we’re able to keep the conversation going.

Respectfully,
Patrick Irving 82431
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SUGGESTION BOX

We suggest our prison admin read this newsletter and check this box from time to time.
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THIS ISSUE WAS PRODUCED IN LOVING MEMORY OF “Happy” CHARISSE SHUMATE

A great big congratulations to the California Coalition for Women Prisoners on their 25th anniversary of publishing The Fire Inside!

We salute you, www.womenprisoners.org.

“The Kids Aren’t Alright”
— The Offspring

Next: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter, Sept. ’21

IDOC NOW HIRING

Boots of all kind. No experience handling swine necessary. Public relations skills a bonus! Must be indifferent to all aspects of compassion and logic, willing to actively campaign against therapeutic and educational opportunities, and be complicit in coverups ranging from federal rights violations to hate crimes committed using state-purchased weaponry.

Be the change you want to see in the world!

Apply to:

Idaho Department of Correction
1299 N. Orchard St., Ste. 110
Boise, ID 83706

ref: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter July ’21

Previous: First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter, June 2021

WELCOME to the July 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, 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

This editor, you may notice, is a little thrown off. Because after months of organizing donations to diversify our library, the library has rewarded me with a 90-day suspension. The reason, they say, is that a book I returned cannot be accounted for. Which makes it the librarian’s responsibility to punish this denizen already rotting in an unreformed Ad-Seg.

It doesn’t appear to matter that, in Ad-Seg, we can only return books through our food slots when opened by staff to pass us our meals; apparently, we’re to be punished for things that staff misplace, as well as for any clericals errors made by the library.

As just one example of a counterproductive discipline, this perhaps is the one that best helps understand why some residents, when placed into Ad-Seg, literally occupy their time by painting the walls with shit.

Needless to say, I find myself affected, and not from the absence of materials to read. (I’m fortunate in that I just invested in books on prisons and programs, addictions and boundaries, etc. They’re my personal donations to the book drive I’ve been holding in an effort to improve our petulant library.) What affects me is the thought that a policy can be used to actively accelerate one’s mental deterioration.

I’m also bothered by the way that these little things add up, making it impossible to build relationships of trust with those who wish to assist, coexist, or change. Because why in the world would you ever offer your trust when all that you’ve been offered is indifference and hardship?

It’s a legitimate question. And that its various elements combined can foster radical behavior does not in anyway stretch a person’s imagination. Or, as a prison doctor cited in C. Weinstein’s “Even Dogs Confined to Cages for Long Periods of Time Go Berserk” puts it:

“…it’s kind of like kicking and beating a dog and keeping it in a cage until it gets as crazy and vicious and wild as it can possibly get, and then one day you take it out into the middle of the streets of San Francisco or Boston and you open the cage and you run away.” (pg. 121).

And on that note, this month, I’m feeling a little off. So what I’ve done here is find peace with a mosaic, one I put together by mashing new updates in with a few of my most charming articles. I’m calling it my tribute to the intrepid Si Kahn, author of “Organizing: A Guide for Grassroots Leaders” — a book I consider well worth being punished for, cruel-and-unusual-like, from those phonies at the library.

Let’s First Amend This!
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JETZT EINSTELLAN

Idaho Department of Correction
1299 N. Orchard, Suite 110
Boise, ID 83706
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IDOC CONDUCTS DAMAGE CONTROL BY CENSORING LOCAL NEWS COVERAGE–LEAVING INMATES TO WONDER, IS DIRECTOR JOSH TEWALT THE ANGEL OF DEATH?!

The IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION IS CONDUCTING DAMAGE CONTROL in response to recent news coverage. Specifically, the March 5th Tommy Simmons article, “Idaho Faces Another Lawsuit Over Lethal Injection Secrecy” at idahopress.com — which spotlighted Director Josh Tewalt’s questionable purchase of lethal injection drugs in 2012 — and Rebecca Boone’s March 2nd article, “Organizations Ask Idaho High Court To Open Execution Records,” syndicated by the Associated Press.

First Amend This!: An IDOC Newsletter received notice March 10th from IDOC’s JPay e-mail system that the Simmons article “cannot be delivered.” Boone, who is a member of the Idaho Press Club, has been covering the story since 2018. Her initial coverage in the Spokesman Review, “U of I Professor Sues Idaho for Execution Records,” was also “returned to sender” on JPay.

Both articles were requested following a brief mention of Tommy Simmons article during a Friday Roundtable on Idaho Matters, a radio show hosted by Gemma Gaudette, on BSU’s public radio station 91.5 FM. A small portion of the article, read over-the-air, described now-IDOC-Director Josh Tewalt’s purchase of lethal injection drugs in 2012 “…in a Tacoma, Washington, Walmart parking lot, with a briefcase full of cash.”

In addition to censoring the realm of public knowledge from their inmates, IDOC has refused to abide by Idaho’s public record laws, following a suit brought by University of Idaho’s Professor Aliza Cover. Aliza is represented by the ACLU and supported in friend-of-the-court briefs by the American Bar Association, the Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Idaho Press Club, the Associated Press, the Idaho Statesman, and KTVB News.

Local news agencies aren’t alone in their struggle of having Departmental information withheld. In 2018 Contract Monitor Monte Hansen required a public records request from our Idaho inmates in Texas who wanted to understand the grievance policy that the Department was implementing on the Mexican border — a basic necessity for bringing claims forth in court. While the policy is meant to be made available free to inmates at the time of request, it took months for them to receive an actual copy. And only then did it come from the ACLU.

More recently, back here at home, IDOC Long-Term Restrictive Housing policy 319.02.01.003 was discovered not to exist, despite a hard-copy update stating it was effective in 2018.

[Adapted for FAT! from Patrick Irving’s March 11th article, “IDOC Conducts Damage Control by Censoring Local News Coverage — Leaving Inmates to Wonder, Is Director Josh Tewalt the Angel of Death?“]

[This article appeared originally appeared in the “Special Alert: Coronavirus Emergency” issue.]
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JUNETEENTH EVE CELEBRATED WITH MEAL SERVICE DOWNGRADE

Finger steaks, mashed potatoes and gravy, a side of corn, and a pretty decent brownie–that’s what’s usually on the menu for Week 2, Friday. But, in preparation for the very first Juneteenth to be federally recognized as a national holiday, these cold-hearted bastards swapped all that for a potato.

Full disclosure: there was also a button of cornbread and an aborted piece of cake (1.5″ x 1.5″ each). Remnants of onion with scrapes of tomato were also found in the vicinity of the edible starchy tuber. Same for a tablespoon of chili and fingernail of dried cheese.

According to a source close to the kitchen, “There couldn’t have been a better time to debut the Woke Potato.”

Note: While some employees were noticeably missing the last weekday before Juneteenth, it’s being reported that the holiday was in no other way given presence by the department throughout its facilities–which we presume to be a matter of pandering to demographics.

We presume this because Idaho is a critical-race-theory-is-a-conspiracy state, and because it’s our director’s responsibility to cater to our governor’s political ambitions. And our governor right now is publicly beefing with our Lt. governor, the ringleader for our anti-critical-race-theory circus (she’s actually running against him). Making it extremely likely that our director was given a good talking-to about “all this Juneteenth nonsense,” and what it would mean to make Governor Little look bad leading up to his run against Lt. Governor McGeachin.

And knowing that, now, you can see it all makes sense–why we’d “celebrate” the eve with a broke-ass Woke Potato.

This publication reported on the absence of Juneteenth in our July ’20 issue. It was mentioned again in Feb. ’21.
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GOVERNOR LITTLE FINGERS INMATE’S VAGINA FOR SUPREME COURT VOYEURS

Idaho’s Governor Brad Little regards inmate’s request to be medically treated for gender dysphoria as having one too many holes for the state.

Currently unfolded, in a very hairy situation, IDOC’s failed attempt to postpone the court-ordered medical procedures initially recommended by doctors who know best.

As Governor Little struggles to powerbottom a precedent, he’s assumed the positioned to sustain quite a pounding: The State’s recent arguments to halt all procedures of the surgical sort — prior to the Supreme Court deciding whether they can pull back the curtains of confusion and find a slot for the case — were strategically resisted in a struggle to exhaust state appeals.

After being wrestled into submission on the floor of state courts, Governor Little requested a rematch be viewed in front of a federal audience, where he suspects the gears of justice will be lubed in his flavor, to assist the pull-out of Edmo’s infamous wiener transition, in what so far has been an exhibition spectacular and, according to inmates, like too many others.

Our legal analyst suspects the Governor’s insistence of holding on to the wiener in question is verging the realm of romantic. Whether or not he’ll release it from clench upon Supreme Court ruling has been the subject of rumors and concerns in circulation.

Offenders polled express general favor towards the incurring of any substantial correctional expense — especially, when done by an inmate represented in the courts. However, in general consensus, the same offender poles can’t imagine getting behind this vagina in particular.

[This article originally appeared in our June ’20 issue]
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JPAY HARDWARE UPDATE

JPay is reporting new delays with the JP6 devices that were suppose to ship in June. According to JPay, shipments are now pushed back until August 2021.

Whether the new devices will function any longer than the old ones is uncertain at this time, but it’s sincerely recommended that you not get your hopes up.
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IDOC/KEEFE/JPAY EXTORTION RACKET TARGETS IDAHO INMATES. GOOD WHOLESOME CHRISTIANS PAY THE PRICE.

Five dollars nowadays is what is a single serving of Dolly Madison zingers costs families supporting their loved ones held under the jurisdiction of the Idaho Department of Correction. The zingers recently replaced the Dolly Madison cupcakes that were selling for two dollars — which were offered themselves as a substitute for a superior brand in 2017, at the same time being doubled in price.

The zingers were recently introduced following the visitor ban implemented at all IDOC facilities — where the same serving size of zingers costs a fraction of that price when purchased through the vending machines in Visiting.

This comes only months after IDOC vendor JPAY sparked public outrage by charging inmates for public domain literary works made available by Project Gutenberg. (Project Gutenberg states with every eBook they make available that they’re “for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.”)

After their public shaming, JPay sent IDOC offenders an email stating that their heart bleeds for us, and such is our luck, they will no longer charge for what never belonged to them in the first place.

However, their bleeding heart apparently found a plug, because in a more recent message, JPay notified IDOC offenders that their correspondees will no longer benefit from the stamp prices given to offender families in Washington. That the price of a JPAY stamp in Washington is roughly 1/5 of Idaho’s price raises questions regarding IDOC’s Contract Management negotiation abilities, along with their persistent attempts to empty the coffers of inmate families.

Fortunately for IDOC inmates at GEO Group’s Eagle Pass Correctional Facility in Texas, many of the same Keefe commissary items purchased in Idaho can be ordered there for one-half to two-thirds the price. Which is curious because IDOC has historically blamed scheduled price increases on Keefe, making it more likely than not that someone needs thrown under the bus.

This reporter relied upon the zingers image provided by Keefe to assess the actual serving size. He would have bought a package to further confirm did it not have a price of FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS!

[This article first appeared in our June ’20 issue. The $5 Zingers have since been removed.]
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A REMINDER FROM CHIEF PAGE

All books and magazines must now come from one of the approved vendors listed below, or directly from the publisher. Books from outside of these vendors and books that do not contain a receipt or invoice will be returned to sender in accordance with SOP 402.02.01.001 Mail Handling in Correctional Facilities, Section 18.

Edward R Hamilton
Thrift Books
Discover Books
More Than Words
Prison Book Program
Books to Prisoners

Books sent in through religious ministries must have the ministry listed as the publisher on the book.
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IDAHO SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON THE PUBLIC’S ACCESS TO EXECUTION RECORDS

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 — The ACLU’s Ritchie Eppink squared up with deputy attorney general Jessica Kuehn in front of the Idaho Supreme Court to battle over University of Idaho professor Aliza Cover’s 2017 public records request for documents related to how offenders are put to death by the State.

Cover’s lawsuit is a product of IDOC’s refusal to turn over the supplier of lethal injection drugs used in Idaho’s most recent executions.

In 2019 a state judge ruled in favor of Professor Cover and the ACLU’s request for information. To which IDOC appealed, concerned that identifying “their guy” would label them narcs forever, making it extremely difficult to score anything in the future.

In September’s video hearing, Mr. Eppink informed the court that IDOC has continuously missed public records request deadlines and refused to provide hundreds of pages of documents. The ACLU argues that this conflicts with their public obligation to behave like “good dudes.” He also illustrated how IDOC does not follow their own rules, as the board has never formalized the policy which allows them to hide public documents.

Apparently, IDOC is concerned it will become harder to dispatch residents if they’re required to detail how they do it, though, to date, the Department of Correction and the Board of Correction have been unable to provide any evidence at all to support their claim that pharmaceutical death brokers actually care if such information is made available: All executions thus far have taken place on a schedule and the Department’s lethal injection drug dealers have never cut them off before.

To paraphrase the attorney for the state, Jessica Kuen: Up until now, our Legislature has allowed the Board of Correction to call their own shots in terms of coverups and bucking public records. So what’s the big fuckin’ deal, man? Just because they’re called public records doesn’t mean our asshole taxpayers deserve actual access to them.

Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Burdick says the court will issue their ruling in the future.

It’s worth mentioning that local media coverage related to this story was censored from reaching our editor in March, and we too have been able to document the Department’s inability to follow their own procedures. (See: IDOC Conducts Damage Control, Regarding Disciplinary.)

[Source: Rebecca Boone, “Idaho Supreme Court Considers Lethal Injections Records Case.” 9-24-20.]

[This article first appeared in our Oct. ’20 issue.]
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COVID NEWS

Approximately 37,000 tests have been administered to IDOC residents in three states. More than 4,400 have identified positive and a total of six deaths have been reported as COVID-related.

Among residents, over 5,440 vaccinations have been fully completed, and at least 234 have received their first shot.

On June 22, the Idaho National Guard concluded IDOC’s vaccination effort by distributing the Janssen vaccine to IMSI’s Ad-Seg population. According to a doctor that accompanied the 8-member Guard unit, residents who’ve declined to be vaccinated will be given another opportunity in approximately one month. With the exception of IDOC’s newest arrivals, said a member of the Guard, all vaccination requests are now considered filled.

According to IMSI staff, visitation will be tested with Community Reentry Centers before consideration is given to other facilities.

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 COVID. Those with concerns and are invited to forward their COVID grievances to:

ACLU Idaho
PO Box 1987
Boise, ID 83701

View IDOC’s COVID numbers here.
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ALGORITHMIC ADDICTION COUNSELOR TO PALM READ RECOVERIES

IDOC has been chosen as one of 33 trial agencies to provide telehealth services in conjunction with The Addiction Forum. Using the Connections App, which touts an ability to predict and reduce relapse, substance abusers will have another form of technological redundancy when it comes time to access their counselors and peers. The tracking app, eager to schedule its abusers’ sobriety, can also, if needed, help Google available resources.

Over one thousand of our nation’s offenders will be volunteered to the program, which is funded by the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE).

Whether FORE’s algorithm is sophisticated enough to graph and monitor the entirety of Idaho’s Fourth Amendment Forfeits’ communication network, we just don’t know. But as soon as Probation and Parole sees fit to order the inoculation of all offender devices (and that should be soon), we can patch in our own Symbiont Groom™, and go full-throttle from there. We’re talking key phrases, texting activity, GPS hotspots, sporadic behavioral conduct, synchronized travel activity, proximity intimations (distance from other at-risk individuals) and, of course, familial biometrics. Once activated, suspicious configurations will be flagged and forwarded to the FORE 501(c)3 Reclamation Machine [Limited Edition!] — expected in March. Also skilled in the art of salvation and newspeak, we trust it to publicly justify attacking targeted networks.

So long as it equates “proportionate response” to “dispatch drone, corral suspected infidels and commence with whatever terroristic treatment has been fashioned for the day,” it’ll continue offering evidence that relapse was preempted, and our citizens can rest knowing all will be well.

Yes…

All. Will be. Orwell.

Source: Clinical Supervisor Gail Baker, idoc.Idaho.gov.

[This article first appeared in our Jan. ’21 issue.]
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FAT! BOOK DRIVE

The library has informed us not all donations are placed on their shelves. And when asked what they do with the donations that don’t find a shelf, the library didn’t respond. Which means, regrettably, that until we finish investigating IMSI’s librarian for embezzlement, the FAT! book drive will be treated as a crime scene.

Please stay tuned.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in June:

Black Hole Blues and Other Songs From Outer Space by Janna Levin
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz
Prisons and Prison Life: Costs and Consequences by Joycelyn M. Pollock
Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison by Bruce Western
Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor M. Rios
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté, MD
Where to Draw the Line: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Every Day by Anne Katherine M.A.
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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 we met Scott Jennings. Familiar with incarceration and the struggles of reentry, Scott is the acting director of Inmates to Entrepreneurs. He discussed the classes his organization offers and how television has played a role in the way they’re gaining traction.

Senator Melissa Wintrow discussed how important it is for justice-affected families communicate their experiences to state representatives–because they do take notice and appreciate all calls.

Crystal Gocken, formerly incarcerated, shared her story and a concept called Baby House. It’s Crystal’s goal to create a resource for expecting mothers soon to be incarcerated, one that would also assist them as they work through reentry. Crystal is working to prevent children from being swallowed by the foster care system as a horrible byproduct of what we’ve deemed justice.

Wayne Shaddock, with the St. Maximilian Colby Reentry Conference, is opening reentry services in the P&P building in District 3. His faith and experience were discussed on the show.

Mark works with a reentry effort under an advocacy arm of St. Vincent de Paul. Learn more @ svdpid.org and imsihopecommunityphaseii.com.
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INMATE SERVICES AT WORK

9-27-19

Dear Chad Page (Chief of Prisons):

Morning reflections, pen in hand: I thought I’d drop you a line.

We are in receipt of your memo at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution — the one about the brewing. All have agreed: the alcohol situation is out of control. We were moved that you would acknowledge this by limiting our sugar purchases. Some have gone so far as to say you’ve provided a beacon of hope.

I am speaking personally now, as an inmate having recently succumbed to his own demons — dirty rotten tricksters, they are. I come forward, stepping beyond accepting responsibility for the possession of alcohol, with a request to use my new qualifications in helping you tackle this problem head-on.

A little about myself: Patrick, Alcoholic. I never struggled with alcoholism before. This is all new to me. It is heavy with burden that I acknowledge a djinn has attached itself to my most intimate vulnerabilities. I’m here today because I’ve heard rumours among us: A treatment does exist!

The whispers describe a system that requires the helping of others to help yourself. True, it sounds of magic. But it comes of grace, not of demons.

Allow me to demonstrate by summonsing an alternate future before your very eyes: Behold! I have arrived, willing and able to actively participate in recovery. Here I am, and here I will be. Know that mine isn’t enough, I must cast the spell on you as well.

That’s it, Chief. That’s all it takes.

I happen to know this because we’ve been squirreling bits and pieces of contraband materials describing some “12 Steps,” in hopes that we can honour both our victims and our families in our making a reasonable attempt to seek rehabilitation.

I have taken the liberty of presenting you with options of costly efficiency (not a typo, we’re talking taxpayer money), issue them at your behest.

It pains me to note that upon receiving my disciplinary notification for alcohol problems, my requests that I be provided information related to alcoholism were not tolerated by my Case Manager or your Medical Provider. The Medical Provider was completely unresponsive to my needing treatment information for this behavioural disorder — the same one that is commonly referred to as a disease. I wasn’t even scheduled an appointment to assess if there was an actual medical need. It was the Case Manager that informed me I don’t qualify by Idaho Department Of Correction standards to receive the benefits of alcohol-related therapeutic treatment at IMSI. Clearly, there is a lot going on here — choose your own adventure!

Not to be discouraged, I performed my own research. I discovered a volunteer-ran group that only requires a meeting room, some free literature and a minimal of two alcoholics. Because they are clandestine in nature, it is likely you are not aware they have already infiltrated all of your facilities. Any member of this Anonymous organization will volunteer to step out of the shadows and go on the record in stating: In addition to restricting the inmates’ sugar intake, providing a meeting of the Anonymous variety may offer a healthy supplement to those actively suffering from substance abuse issues.

I know what you’re thinking: “Mr. Irving, Esq., you have ten years left until Board. Your behaviourals are likely to cure themselves in said amount of time. Should they not, tackling them six months prior your release shall have to suffice.”

To which I offer: Not treating my behaviourals during my incarceration’s entirety does nothing to establish a pattern of resistance against a lifelong history of poor decision-making. It also doesn’t assist in Correctionsing behaviors the Board expects me to discontinue before they’ll even consider me for parole.

I find there are obvious advantages in helping inmates learn about good decisions when they first arrive in prison, not moments before you release them back into the wild.

Let us now break from the radical for a brief discussion of issues Constitutional.

My friend and I watch every week as our unit neighbors are picked up from their cells to be scrubbed free of sin on Sundays. We are left on the sad side of our windows, chosen by your staff to remain in eternal damnation.

My mother talks to God every weekend, she says there is plenty of room in Heaven and Jesus intended to offer the Lord’s grace to everyone, not just the Soft Walks at our facility. You’re right in that they need forgiveness for all their despicabilities much, much more than we do. But you can only polish a turd so much, and we’d really like to chop it up with Yahweh at least once this year.

I’m not asking much, just for you to kindly address these issues. I’d prefer to direct my focus towards items more pressing.

In friendship and incarceration,
Patrick Irving 82431

[This correspondence originally appeared as “IDOC Now Hiring: Alchemist Wizards Wanted” @ bookofirving82431.com]
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SUGGESTION BOX

I suggest you fill a box full of books–you can use our donations so it doesn’t cost you anything– and then place that box of books in Ad-Seg, to be used like the box that holds books for Detention. This way, everyone in Ad-Seg can have a book at all times, regardless of whether mistakes have been made.
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Shout out to Fritzi with the Compassion Prison Project in Los Angeles!

See you next month.

“We Can’t Play Like Django”
— Alex Radus featuring Dave Cahill