Idaho prison overcrowding is pushing some women into segregated housing units that prisoners describe as punishment, even when the women say they were not disciplined or deemed a safety threat. In Boise at South Idaho Correctional Institution, prisoners and advocates described how bed shortages left them confined in cells for most of the day and limited access to recreation and other people, a pattern civil-rights lawyers say runs counter to stated policy.
Kristine Scott described a transfer from a southeast Idaho prison that was expected to bring her to a minimum-security setting and community reentry work. Instead, Scott said she and other women arrived and were placed in a segregated housing unit usually reserved for inmates who violate rules or pose a safety risk—known to prisoners as “the hole.” Scott, who is serving a four-year sentence for drug possession, said the women were confined for 23 hours a day in pairs in small cells with only a bunk bed, sink and toilet.
Scott said the women were taken each morning at 7 a.m. in handcuffs to an outdoor recreation area described as a 4-by-5 foot cage for an hour, and otherwise were not allowed to see or speak to other inmates. She said personal communication with family and friends was limited, and she and the other women had no clear idea how long they would remain there. Scott said, “They’re treating us like we’re in trouble when we haven’t done anything,” adding that she had been moved from a work center to be stuck in the hole.
Tena Bishop said she spent two weeks in segregation after she was transferred to the Boise prison in 2023 while waiting for a bed. Bishop, who said she had been convicted of selling drugs, described segregation as the worst period of her incarceration and said, “Segregation is the worst time anyone can do. It makes you suicidal.” Bishop said she was confined for nearly all of the day, including being required to give up personal belongings when placed in the segregated unit.
InvestigateWest, working with The Associated Press, interviewed five women who said they were placed in segregated units at South Idaho Correctional Institution since 2020 due to overcrowding. Scott said she and her roommate spent five days in segregation. The women described being confined to their cells for 23 hours a day, and they differed in whether they were allowed personal items, according to their accounts.
Idaho’s Department of Correction declined interview requests for this story. The department posted on its website in March that it is “operating at over 100% of capacity requiring the department to implement short-term solutions” such as moving hundreds of men to prisons out of state, which could reduce pressure on bed space in Idaho’s men’s facilities. But the reporting said women’s prisons remain at capacity, and that overcrowding could mean additional reliance on segregation cells for overflow housing.
The article reported that Idaho prisons have capacity for 1,184 women, according to an April 22 email from the department. On that day, state custody records showed 1,188 women in custody, according to the report. Prison officials, the reporting said, also describe some placements as consistent with department policies that allow inmates to be moved to restrictive housing if beds are unavailable when they arrive, putting inmates in “transit status,” which the policy says is “not a form of restrictive housing even if the inmate remains in the restrictive housing unit.”
Ritchie Eppink, a civil rights attorney at Idaho’s Wrest Collective, said placing inmates in segregation because of overcrowding is a symptom of Idaho’s “addiction to incarceration” and violates prisoners’ civil rights. Eppink said, “The research is clear that this kind of segregation, isolation, putting people in solitary confinement conditions causes long-lasting harm, even over very short periods of time,” adding that it has mental health consequences and is counterproductive for prisoners, staff and society.
Eppink said the Department of Correction was not prepared to manage the problem it faces, noting that civil-rights and human-rights abuses begin when staff cannot properly address overcrowding-related decisions. The Department of Correction said in an email that “restrictive housing and segregation units continue to be used according to standard protocols,” according to the report. The reporting also said efforts to reform restrictive housing practices in Idaho have existed for about a decade but have not eliminated use of restrictive units for overflow housing, and that a new women’s prison planned south of Boise will not be ready until at least the end of 2027.