400 Idaho inmates to move to different Texas prison

BOISE – More than 400 Idaho inmates housed at a prison in Newton, Texas, will be moved to two other prisons in Texas, Idaho Department of Correction officials announced Tuesday.

The prisoners are being housed in Texas because Idaho’s prisons are overcrowded, and the move was prompted in part by a request from GEO Group, the company that oversees all three of the Texas prisons.

GEO Group wanted the space at the Newton County Correctional Center for Texas inmates, correction department officials said. The Newton facility has also been the site of complaints from Idaho inmates and allegations of prisoner maltreatment.

The inmates will move to the Bill Clayton Detention Center and to the Dickens County Correction Center, both near Lubbock, in western Texas.