IDOC on solitary confinement: 'Do that for 10 or 15 years, you've created a monster'

BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) — Dozens of inmates at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, or IMSI, are locked in solitary confinement.

Some are on death row, others just can't be trusted around other inmates or prison staff.

But is solitary confinement serving its purpose?

According to Kevin Kempf, the Director of the Idaho Department of Correction, in many cases it's not.

Spend anytime at IMSI and you'll quickly learn "maximum security" is no understatement.

About 500 of Idaho's highest-risk inmates call it home.

Many of them are locked away in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

This means they have little to no human interaction, they eat in their cells, and they only get to shower three times a week.

Some inmates have lived this way for decades.

Their only reprieve from their cell is one hour a day spent outside in a cage.

This method of incarceration a tactic IDOC is getting away from.

In the past, solitary confinement was used as a form of punishing inmates for not following the rules or making the lives of corrections officers harder.

Kempf concedes some inmates do need to be in solitary, or as IDOC refers to it administrative segregation. However, he adds for the inmates who are not a safety risk, locking them away for the entire day is not productive.

With this in mind Kempf is ushering in a wave of reforms to minimize the use of solitary and maximize inmate rehabilitation in Idaho prisons.

"97 percent of these guys are going to get out and walk into an Idaho community," explained Kempf. "If we treat them like crap, if we treat them like animals, they're going to walk out of a prison like that."

According to Kempf this was proved just two years ago when 44 inmates were released directly from solitary confinement, back into the free world.

"So we took belly chains and leg irons off of them and then cut them loose out of our front door. That's irresponsible. We can't do that." Kempf said.

While certain inmates will remain caged for the safety of others, they will be the exception, not the rule.

"Some people just think 'oh my gosh they're being soft on inmates,' (and) it's not the case," he said. "It's absolutely not the case."

Kempf believes this because, as he put it, in a prison setting you can either make people better or you can make people worse, and locking people away for 23 hours each day makes them worse.

"You do that for 10 or 15 years, you've created a monster out of that person," added Kempf.

So, in an effort to create better neighbors and members of the Idaho community rather than creating monsters, IDOC is moving towards an approach to adjust inmates to a normal life.

"We have inmates that are going through our step down program," said Al Ramirez, warden at IMSI.

Warden Ramirez cut the number of inmates in solitary at IMSI by one third over the last year.

A big part of this is the step down program which all starts in a cell about the size of a broom closet.

Many of these cells are in a room together and while inmates are in them they can talk to each other and interact without guards needing to worry about physical violence.

The sight of the cells may be harsh, but it's just the first step in adjusting inmates from solitary to an open environment.

Those who go through the step-down program tend to have a much easier time staying out of solitary for the rest of their stay in prison.

Once inmates are out of solitary confinement they can get lower-risk ratings and eventually have some freedom within the walls of the prison, in hopes that this will allow them a smooth and crime-free transition back into the real world, with the tools to never see the inside of these walls ever again.

IDOC is still in the middle of phasing in these reforms and plan to be done around this time in 2017. At that time Kempf says they'll evaluate where they can improve and make more reforms.

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