As many know a major “disturbance” took place at the Idaho State Correctional Center (ISCC) at H Block on April 10.  This disturbance led to the arrival of the Ada County Sheriffs deputies, Idaho State Police, the Boise police Department, the Kuna Fire Department and Ada County Paramedics. 

Despite all of the commotion very little information has been released by IDOC or their spokesperson Jeff Rey.  It was reported that the incident began with staff initially responding to the report of an assault.  Then several inmates began to destroy property. They tried to break windows.  A fire was started.  Five inmates were treated for injuries.  Four were treated on Saturday at a local hospital and then the fifth treated on Monday the 12th.

So what was the cause?  Why did inmates decide to just start destroy property?  Start a fire? 

The first thing to understand is that H Block is not a prison.  It was originally built as manufacturing facility that was later converted to a Military barracks style detention center. Although it is currently being used as a prison, it definitely is not built like one.  There are no individual cells, individual restrooms, or cell blocks.  It is basically one big open building with a bunch of bunks.  Because of this open dormitory style, it makes it very difficult to separate two inmates who aren’t getting along, let alone 300.

H Block is an open dormitory made from a retrofitted manufacturing facility.

It has been reported by an independent source around 4:30 on April 10, a confrontation arose between two of those inmates that escalated from a verbal argument to a shoving match.  As the altercation worsened Correctional officers responded and subdued both inmates. The officers then took one of the inmates just outside of H Block and began to “discipline him severely” in view of the inmates inside the building.  Because H Block is an open dormitory, almost the entire first tier had access to view the prison staff discipline the inmate.  In an effort to stop and distract the officers, the inmates began banging on the windows.  As the discipline continued, inmates then decided to light a trash can on fire as an attempt to trigger fire the alarm and stop the “discipline”.  Once the fire alarm was triggered, it did stop the correctional officers, however the fire quickly got out of hand and smoke now began to fill tier 1 of H Block.  According to the source, inmates on tier 1 were able to get out of the building to get fresh air, but not before four inmates received injuries due to smoke inhalation and had to be treated at a local hospital.  It was also “assumed” by the source that the fifth inmate treated at the hospital on Monday April 12th, was the one who was disciplined by Correctional officers.