Kevin Kempf named Idaho prisons director

BOISE – The Idaho Board of Correction has appointed Kevin Kempf as the new director of prisons one week after his predecessor, Brent Reinke, gave his resignation notice.

The board made the appointment during a special meeting Wednesday, but the choice wasn’t a surprise. Kempf has been with the department for 19 years and has served as the deputy director since 2012. That position was created by the board after Gov. Butch Otter said he wanted all of his state agencies to have a succession plan in place in case of an unexpected departure.

Kempf’s salary will be $140,000 a year – a substantial increase over the $126,000 annual salary paid to Reinke, according to a state database of employee wages. J.R. Van Tassel, the only person on the three-member Board of Correction to vote against Kempf’s appointment, said that he was glad Kempf was getting the spot but voted no because he wasn’t comfortable with the salary increase.

After the meeting, Kempf said he didn’t anticipate making any big changes at the department in the immediate future.

“My first step will be sitting down with the Board of Correction and making sure that I am in line with their priorities, what direction they would like us to go,” Kempf said. “I foresee that we’re going to be on the same path that we are. We have a lot of big initiatives: Justice reinvestment, ISCC (Idaho State Correctional Center) transition, all of those things that are going to require all of our attention.”

Idaho took over the Idaho State Correctional Center earlier this year, after private prison company Corrections Corporation of America acknowledged it had understaffed the prison by thousands of hours in violation of its $29 million state contract. The FBI is currently investigating the understaffing and other issues involving the CCA contract to see if fraud or other criminal charges are appropriate.