Idaho DOC asks Legislature for security upgrades after staff shot during transport

The Idaho Department of Correction asked the Joint Finance Preparations Committee on Feb. 4 for multiple budget additions to shore up security after a spring incident in which staff were shot while returning a hospitalized inmate to custody.

The requests include a one-time supplemental to expand the transport bureau, ongoing funding for digital mail scanning, drone detection and phone-call transcription tools, and a federally funded pilot to equip certain staff with body-worn cameras. The agency framed the package as measures intended to reduce contraband, improve situational awareness and create a trained statewide resource for high-risk medical transports.

Noah Peterson, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, briefed the committee and summarized the agency's ask, telling members that the supplemental package was prompted by “an inmate that was transported to St. Alphonsus medical facility to receive emergency treatment … they were ambushed by a lone gunman. Three IDOC staff were shot,” and that the suspect and inmate were later linked to additional murders before being apprehended.

Direc…