Idaho officials say claims exaggerated in prison lawsuit

BOISE – Attorneys for the Idaho Department of Correction say inmates exaggerated problems with the prison medical care system and waited too long to complain, and as a result, prison officials shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for violating a settlement in a decades-old class action lawsuit.

The court documents were filed late last week in federal court. They mark the latest twist in a lawsuit first brought by inmates in 1981 that contends unconstitutionally poor medical care was provided to prisoners at the Idaho State Correctional Institution.

Earlier this year, attorneys for the inmates said some prisoners were forced to undergo amputations after bedsores went untreated and others with serious disabilities were left without water for extended periods.

But the state’s attorneys say any problems with medical care have long been fixed and that complaints about poor treatment are overstated and outdated.