Controversy Leads To Prison System Change

State officials have ordered a top-level management shakeup in the Idaho Department of Correction, concluding that the John Pribble rape scandal reached as high as the agency’s No. 2 administrator.

The measures disclosed Friday are a result of Gov. Phil Batt’s deep dissatisfaction with the department’s initial handling of the case.

Pribble, a guard, was convicted of raping four women at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in 1994 and is serving a minimum 1-1/2-year prison sentence.

The three-member state Board of Correction said it had demoted the agency’s second-highest administrator, prisons chief David Paskett, to warden of the Maximum Security Institution, effective immediately.

Paskett, a 22-year agency veteran, was involved in the destruction of public records amid a criminal investigation of Pribble, the board found. However, “It is the department’s opinion that malicious or illegal intent was nonexistent.”

Also, the former warden in charge of the prison where Pribble committed his crimes, Arvon J. Arave, has retired from the agency in lieu of disciplinary action. The board concluded Arave “either knew or should have known of the incident taking place.”

A third employee was reprimanded and forced to take two weeks unpaid leave because she failed to relay information about Pribble to Arave in a timely manner. Two other employees may be disciplined, depending on the outcome of an investigation, the board said.