A few weeks ago Chris was telling me they were adding another set of double bunks to each unit. Placing 4 inmates per cell rather then two.

Sunday when I saw him he told me that now they may have to remove those beds after all. It seems several years ago a law suit was filed against the DOC. Chris was saying he just read some recent paperwork saying the conditions to the law suit still apply. One of the things mentioned in the law suit was inmate safety.

I have looked up the law suit and cant find much, but here is what I am finding.

Balla v. Idaho State Board of Corrections.

U.S. District Court, D. Idaho.

KIE: In a class action by inmates of state correctional institutions, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho found violations of the Eighth Amendment in the failure to provide inmates with minimally adequate food, clothing, medical care, and safety. The court ordered special diets for medically infirm prisoners, uniform quality and quantity of food regardless of classification, sufficient clothing to protect inmates from the cold, 24-hour emergency medical care, a mental health treatment program, measures to assure personal safety, and a new classification system for the segregation of maximum and minimum security prisoners.

Publication Types:
Legal Cases

I over heard some ladies in the visiting room today talking about this. All I caught was the inmates won and the bunks are coming back out. Something to do with not enough sinks and toilets on a unit to accomidate that many inmates. I'm sure that wasnt the entire reason they have to move the extra bunks, but that seems to be part of the issue.

When I talked to Chris today he said that the inspecters were in and checking things out this last week. He was saying that they filled those extra bunks as soon as they put them in the units so now they have to get all those inmates moved out within the next couple weeks