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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Inmate Transfer Angers Families State Sending 150 Prisoners To Louisiana To Free Up Cell Space

Associated Press

Family members of inmates at the Idaho Correctional Institution-Orofino are outraged about plans to send 120 minimum-and medium-security prisoners to a private institution in Louisiana.

“It’s just crazy to send them away from family who want to help them and support them so they can turn their lives around,” said Ann Wells of Moscow, whose husband, Richard Wells, has been behind bars for more than four years.

“It’s very upsetting. I moved down here to be near my husband,” Charlotte Campbell, formerly of Kellogg, said Tuesday. “It’s like having someone abducted.”

A total of 150 inmates statewide will be moved, possibly within the next 30 days, to the Basile Detention Center in Basile, La., Idaho Department of Correction spokeswoman Christine Hopson said.

Another 150 inmates will be moved to Basile later this year.

“We wish we didn’t have to send them. But unfortunately, we’re getting way more inmates than we have beds,” Hopson said.

Idaho now has 4,106 men and women inmates. A total of 448 are housed in other states - 200 in Minnesota and 248 in Texas. Another 376 are being kept in county jails throughout Idaho, Hopson said.

The shift of inmates to Louisiana, she said, is driven by the need to lighten the inmate load in Idaho jails. The Idaho Legislature last session passed a measure allowing the Correction Department to contract with private prisons out of state.

“The problem is, we’re gaining 50 inmates a month right now,” Hopson said.

Phil Foster, warden at the Idaho Correctional Institution-Orofino, said he announced the transfer to inmates Monday.

“For the most part, they’re accepting it,” he said. “I think there’s a little apprehension, but they really don’t have much choice.”

Hopson confirmed that only the bestbehaved inmates are being moved. While the department wants to reward good behavior, she said, the reality is that out-of-state prisons can pick and choose.

“They don’t want a bunch of jerks,” Hopson said.

She pointed out, however, that most of the inmates being sent to Louisiana have been convicted of serious crimes, ranging from drug abuse, burglary and armed robbery to rape, aggravated battery and sexual assault.

Wells, who married her husband one year ago at the Orofino prison, said officials are sending the wrong message to inmates and their families.

“He’s never been in the hole and never had any write-ups,” Wells said. “And now he gets this.”

Hopson and Foster refused, for security reasons, to say exactly when the inmates will be transferred. But Foster said the process probably would begin within the next month. He said the inmates would be flown to Louisiana.