Idaho DOC seeks funds for contraband tech, transport expansion after staff shooting

The Idaho Department of Correction asked a legislative budget committee on Feb. 4 for funding to harden prisons and improve transport safety after an incident last spring in which three DOC staff were shot while escorting an inmate to and from a hospital.

The requests include $2.4 million annually to operate a package of technologies — digital mail scanning, drone detection and phone-call transcription and analysis — and a supplemental $1.15 million to expand the agency’s transport bureau, adding 12 full-time positions and seven vehicles. The department also requested federal grant funding to pilot body-worn cameras at three sites and a smaller ongoing appropriation to cover future state matching costs.

Why it matters: Director Josh Tewalt and agency analysts told the Joint Finance Preparations Committee these steps respond to “vulnerabilities” revealed by the hospital transport shooting and to growing sophistication in how contraband arrives in facilities, including drones and chemically altered printed material. The…