Idaho to move inmates in Texas

BOISE – State prison officials say 125 Idaho inmates in a private Texas prison are due to make their fourth move since 2005, following a suicide in March, problems with a guard passing contraband to inmates and the former warden’s ouster.

The inmates, who were moved out of state two years ago because of overcrowding in Idaho lockups, are now at the Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur, Texas, where they’ve been since Aug. 7.

Concerns over conditions at Dickens, an aging county jail run as a prison by the Florida-based GEO Group, prompted the latest move, Idaho Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke said Thursday.

“The problems we’ve had in Texas reflect the challenge of managing out of state. We believe Idaho inmates are best managed at home in Idaho,” Reinke said. He plans in September to introduce a proposal to build a 1,500-bed private prison in Idaho to create more space for the state’s 7,000 inmates.

Reinke hopes to move 69 of the Dickens prisoners soon to another GEO-run prison, the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, where similar problems haven’t occurred. About 304 Idaho inmates are already there, but that facility is making space for more.

The remaining 56 at Dickens could go to another GEO facility elsewhere. Reinke didn’t specify where that prison is located. He said the date of the move will be withheld until it’s complete.

The inmates in Texas were originally moved from Idaho in 2005, going first to Minnesota.

Space limitations there forced them to be relocated in 2006 to a GEO-run prison in Newton, Texas, where problems emerged immediately, including beatings by guards. That prompted Idaho to request the move to Dickens and Bill Clayton last August.