Visits suspended at Idaho prison as COVID cases rise, vaccine and booster requests mount

“Susan” booked a flight from California to Idaho to come visit her brother, a resident in the Idaho State Correctional Institution. But for the second time in the last two years, since the coronavirus pandemic began, she had to cancel her flight because of an outbreak of COVID-19 among residents.

Her brother, who is 63 years old, had a heart attack when he was in prison and is considered medically vulnerable. She said he has requested to get the vaccine but had yet to receive it.

“I’m not as concerned about me going to see him — I’m more concerned about him getting a shot,” she said last week. “He hasn’t gotten the vaccine. He wants it. All the inmates are complaining because they’re not receiving their shots and booster shot.”

Susan asked that her real name not be used because she is concerned about negative repercussions against her brother, who is up for parole in two years. The Statesman verified that her brother is a prisoner at the Idaho State Correctional Institution.

As of Jan. 11, 171 residents in all prisons had pending requests for the vaccine, and 508 residents had pending requests for a booster shot, according to Idaho Department of Correction spokesperson Jeff Ray.

Ray said most of those requests for vaccine and boosters were from the state’s two largest facilities, the Idaho State Correctional Institute and the nearby 2,100-bed Idaho State Correctional Center and that clinics were planned for those facilities last week, which should alleviate the backlog of requests for shots.

The ACLU of Idaho confirmed that it has been receiving complaints about COVID-19 in Idaho’s prisons and county jails.

“We have received complaints regarding individuals being denied COVID-19 vaccinations, testing, and/or treatment, as well as complaints of allegedly COVID-19 positive individuals being placed in general population,” the ACLU of Idaho wrote in a statement emailed to the Idaho Statesman. “These complaints have been addressed through the jail or prison grievance process or with the assistance of county officials.”

As of Jan. 4, 6,631 IDOC residents were fully vaccinated, an additional 213 had received a partial dose and 395 residents had received booster shots.

Christine Starr, chief of staff for the IDOC, said in a phone interview that vaccinating and boosting those who want it has been slowed by a change in the prison’s health care contract.

Centurion Health won the bid to replace Corizon Health, effective Oct. 1, Starr said.

“Certainly with our transition from Corizon to Centurion, I can tell you from my perspective, it hasn’t happened as quickly as I would have liked it to,” Starr said. “I’m the first to say that I don’t think the boosters have happened as quickly as we would have liked them to.”

Meanwhile, the Idaho Department of Correction announced Friday that visitation was suspended at the Idaho State Correctional Institution until at least Jan. 29 due to an increase in positive COVID-19 test results.

“I bought another ticket to go there now,” Susan said last week. “And now they’re quarantined again, and my brother said that there’s no visiting them on lockdown, and they’re giving them the runaround.”

The 1,446-bed, medium-security men’s prison south of Boise had 26 new cases of COVID-19 last week, and 37 staff members were out for COVID-19-related reasons, having either tested positive or been exposed to someone who tested positive, according to Ray.

All facilities in the South Boise Correctional Complex and eastern Idaho on Friday were placed on modified secure status due to COVID-19, meaning that activities, programs and movement within the facilities are temporarily limited.

Visitation to the Idaho State Correctional Institution has been a roller coaster ride. Visitation was suspended in early December due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, with about 80 cases in a two-day period.

Limited visitation resumed Dec. 20 after cases dropped, averaging about two positive cases per day, but that proved to be short-lived, with another uptick of 33 new cases in all prisons Jan. 3-9 and at least 160 resident cases reported since Jan. 7, according to Ray.

As of Jan. 10, a total of 4,803 residents in all IDOC prisons had tested positive for COVID-19. Six residents have died with COVID-19. That’s out of a population of roughly 8,000 residents on any given day.

“We really place a priority on providing visitation and opportunities for our residents to connect with their family and their friends. I mean, it’s just paramount,” Starr said. “The reality is also that if all of a sudden, we go in and do mass testing, and there’s a high positivity rate, we’re not going to wait to change the status of that facility, because it wouldn’t be safe to do that.”

If the Idaho Department of Correction wants to maintain public trust and keep its population and staff safe, it’d better light a fire under Centurion and make sure those who want it get the vaccine or the booster shot. Especially when we have so many people who won’t get vaccinated, we should be rushing to get vaccines to people who actually want it.

It behooves the department, as well, to make sure that friends and family members like Susan can still visit their loved ones who are incarcerated.

“We have loved ones in there,” Susan said. “I haven’t seen my brother for like four years. I’ve only seen him one time since he’s been in there. I’m there for my brother. I love my brother no matter what he did.”