Bryan Kohberger set to die one of America's worst prisons — with feces-smeared cages, rioting inmates and ‘biohazard' ventilation system
The 30-year-old convicted killer of four University of Idaho students will serve his sentence in the state's most brutal prison alongside Chad Daybell, the child murderer and husband of 'Doomsday' cult mom Lori Vallow, as well as two of Idaho's most notorious serial killers.
Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI), where Kohberger is expected to be sentenced to life in prison, opened in 1989, hosts the Gem State's 'most disruptive male residents' and violent criminals.
Since then, it has developed a reputation as not just the toughest prison in the state — but one of the harshest in the nation.
10 Bryan Kohberger is likely to spend the rest of his life in Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
TNS
10 The prison has been named as one of the worst in America, according to Security Journal Americas.
KBOI
IMSI was named as one of the '15 Worst Prisons in America' by Security Journal Americas in 2024 — alongside other infamous institutions including Louisiana State Penitentiary, AKA 'The Farm,' San Quentin in California and Attica Correctional Facility in western New York.
The magazine highlighted its alleged harsh treatment of inmates, excessive use of solitary confinement, and lack of mental health resources. Violence between inmates and allegations of excessive force by correctional officers were also brought up, as well as overcrowding leading to 'a tense and volatile environment,' the outlet wrote.
10 The prison came under fire in the past for the excessive use of solitary confinement.
KBOI
In 2016, the newly appointed director of the Idaho Department of Correction looked to reform the state's use of solitary as punishment.
Many of the inmates were locked away in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, KBOI reported at the time.
10 A previous prison director warned solitary was turning inmates into 'animals.'
Idaho DOC
This meant little to no human interaction, food in cells, and only showering three times a week, a pattern some inmates live for decades.
'97 percent of these guys are going to get out and walk into an Idaho community,' Kempf told KBOI. 'If we treat them like crap, if we treat them like animals, they're going to walk out of a prison like that.'
In particular, he highlighted the dangers of excessive solitary confinement on inmates.
10 The prison has been known for its punishing conditions.
KTVB
'You do that for 10 or 15 years, you've created a monster out of that person,' he said.
Kohberger, 30, who on Tuesday pleaded guilty to killing four University of Idaho students in their Moscow home while they slept in November 2022, has been held in maximum security at Ada County Jail in Boise since the trial was moved to the state capital.
10 Bryan Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty this week to murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022.
AP
But he is expected to be transferred to Idaho Maximum Security Institution, some 10 miles south, following his sentencing hearing on July 23.
The remote prison is surrounded by a double perimeter fence along with razor wire, an electronic detection system, and 24-hour armed patrol.
10 The prison hosts more than 500 of the Gem State's most dangerous and violent criminals.
TNS
Last year, 90 inmates at the IMSI went on a hunger strike demanding better treatment and services.
They complained of feces-covered recreation 'cages,' long bouts of isolation, serious medical care delays, and a dirty HVAC system they compared to a 'biohazard,' the Idaho Statesman reported at the time.
The prison was forced to confirm that it halted many services, including access to certain religious practices, in 2020 in response to unprecedented staff shortages brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
To quell the riot, prison authorities used pepper spray and tear gas on the inmates, the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) confirmed.
Here's the latest coverage on Bryan Kohberger:
The IDOC claimed the protest's ringleaders wanted to force staff to 'segregate' housing by gang and racial affiliation, the Idaho Statesman reported.
The IDOC didn't respond immediately to requests for comment.
10 Kohberger's fellow inmates will include 'Doomsday' child killer Chad Daybell.
AP
The prison, built to replace the original Idaho Penitentiary — which was built even before Idaho became a state in 1890 — can house a maximum capacity of 549 inmates, including a dedicated section for mental health offenders.
It offers restrictive housing beds and disciplinary detention.
10 Serial killer Gerald Pizzuto is on death row at the prison.
It also includes Idaho's death row, where all eight of the state's male inmates facing death sentences are held.
Kohberger's deal, which also spared him a trial and the chance of death by firing squad, means he must spend the rest of his life in prison with no opportunity for parole or appeals, after the criminology PhD student admitted to murdering Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21.
10 Also held at the prison is Thomas Eugene Creech, who is feared to have murdered more than 40 people.
Idaho department of correctons
Other famous inmates at the prison include Daybell, currently on death row for murdering his first wife Tammy, as well as his second wife Lori Vallow's two children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow, 7.
Serial killer Gerald Pizzuto is awaiting execution for four 1985 murders in Idaho and Washington.
Another resident is serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech, who is believed to have murdered as many as 43 people between 1974 and 1981. He was convicted of five killings.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bryan Kohberger heading to infamous Idaho prison where inmates have complained of feces covered walls
Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty this week to the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students, will likely spend the rest of his life in what's widely considered one of the worst prisons in the country. Tucked away in a desolate area on the outskirts of the capital Boise, the Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI), has earned a grim reputation for its harsh conditions with allegations of abusive guards, violent brawls, feces-covered recreation 'cages' and a dirty ventilation system described as being 'biohazard.' The maximum-security facility houses some of the state's most dangerous criminals — including convicted killer Chad Daybell, the husband of 'Doomsday' cult mom Lori Vallow. And now, 30-year-old Kohberger is expected to join them after he is sentenced later this month for the sayings of Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, a case that rocked the small college town of Moscow in November 2022, the New York Post reported. In the two and a half years since Kohberger's arrest, his attorneys unsuccessfully attempted to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty and challenged DNA evidence, leaving a plea deal their final option to spare his life before the start of Kohberger's highly-anticipated trial in August. Kohberger avoided the death penalty in pleading guilty to the crimes this week in exchange for spending the rest of his life in prison. He has been held at the Ada County Jail in Boise under maximum security since the trial was moved from Moscow. But now he will live out the rest of his days at a remote prison about 10 miles south – a place surrounded by a double perimeter fence with razor wire, an electronic detection system, and 24-hour armed guards. It's a place that was designed for what the Idaho Department of Correction describes as the state's 'most disruptive male residents.' In 2024, the Security Journal Americas named IMSI one of the '15 Worst Prisons in America,' along with the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as The Farm, California's San Quentin, and New York's Attica Correctional Facility. The unfavorable recognition came after 90 inmates went on a hunger strike demanding better treatment and services. Reports at the time cited excessive use of solitary confinement, a lack of mental health resources, and a 'tense and volatile environment' stemming from overcrowding and inmate violence, according to the Idaho Statesman. Solitary confinement at IMSI has long been a point of concern. In 2016, then-Director of the Idaho Department of Correction, Kevin Kempf, launched efforts to reform the practice, noting that many inmates were confined alone for up to 23 hours a day, with minimal human contact, meals delivered in their cells, and showers limited to three times a week — a routine that, for some, lasts years, local outlet KBOI reported. 'Ninety-seven percent of these guys are going to get out and walk into an Idaho community,' Kempf told KBOI at the time. 'If we treat them like animals, they're going to walk out of prison like that.' For Kohberger, his likely transfer to IMSI would mark the beginning of the life sentence without the possibility of parole plea deal he accepted in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. The 11th hour bombshell decision came about just weeks before Kohberger's long-awaited trial was set to begin. At his plea deal hearing on Wednesday, the former criminology student remained impassive as he admitted to breaking into the off-campus home and killing the four students who appeared to have no connection with him. Prosecutors did not reveal a motive behind the slayings.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Disgusted': Bryan Kohberger's former friends, peers react to guilty murder plea
Childhood friends of Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty Wednesday to stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in November 2022, have tracked his murder case from afar and said they felt shocked the former Pennsylvania resident suddenly agreed to a plea deal to spare his life. 'I won't lie, I kind of spiraled yesterday,' Casey Arntz, 32, told the Idaho Statesman in a text Thursday. 'Did he ever have thoughts like that before? Did he ever think that he wanted to kill me or my friends? Were we spared because we were friends with him?' Arntz and her younger brother, Thomas, grew up together with Kohberger in the Pocono Mountains near the Pennsylvania state line with New Jersey among a small circle of friends. They spent time together playing video games after school, as well as getting outdoors in the heavily forested region. As Kohberger got into drugs in high school, they said, a distance developed. Kohberger later overcame a heroin addiction. With the sporadic exception, they hadn't spoken in years, which made his arrest at his parents' Pennsylvania home in December 2022 so startling. He had been their awkward, chubby teenage friend, with heightened ability to observe and wit to match, they said. Now he was accused of killing four students on the other side of the country in a nationally known investigation that unimaginably ended in their hometown. The victims were Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20. Each suffered multiple wounds in the attack at an off-campus home on King Road in Moscow, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson told the court Wednesday. The allegations floored them then, and similar emotions rushed back this week after Kohberger, 30, admitted he repeatedly stabbed the four college undergraduates with a large, fixed-blade knife that prosecutors said he bought on Amazon in March 2022 while living in Pennsylvania. Kohberger brought the knife and Ka-Bar brand leather sheath — which he left behind with his DNA at the crime scene — with him on his move a few months later to Pullman for a Ph.D. program at Washington State University. On Wednesday, Kohberger pleaded guilty to the four counts of first-degree murder and a count of felony burglary to avoid a possible death sentence at trial. He agreed to maximum sentences for each, which is likely to see him spend the rest of his life in prison. Kohberger will have no chance of parole and he can never file an appeal, according to the terms of the agreement. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 23. Donna Yozwiak, Kohberger's high school guidance counselor, reacted with surprise. 'Actually, I was hoping that he was not the murderer who killed these four students,' she said in an email to the Statesman. 'I hope that his family will survive this horrendous ordeal and be able to get on with their lives. I also hope that the victims' relatives gain much needed closure and heal after this tragedy. 'As a society, we may never know the motivation for the murders or if Bryan Kohberger has any remorse for his violent actions.' Kohberger's admissions in court finally put any question of his culpability to bed for Jack Baylis, 31, another of their group of friends at the time. 'You wouldn't plead guilty to it unless you did that,' he said in a phone interview Thursday. 'If you were framed, you'd be fighting tooth and nail.' Kohberger's decision to take people's lives was additionally disheartening, he said, because he had kicked his drug habit and seemingly had a life direction. But the desire to learn about people who commit murder — an area of interest for Kohberger — took hold, and he likely wanted to see whether he could get away with the perfect crime, Baylis said. 'I think he did it to see what it felt like, to experience it. If he wanted to write a paper about what killers feel and why they kill, to be accurate, you have to experience it yourself to truly understand it,' Baylis said. 'To get into the mind of a killer, you have to be a killer, would be my guess.' Casey Arntz told the Statesman she had conflicting emotions about how, after 2 ½ years of legal proceedings, her former friend acknowledged he was responsible for the early morning quadruple homicide — perhaps the most talked-about crime in Idaho history. She felt for the victims' families, especially those upset that the death penalty was no longer an option with the plea bargain, but welcomed the case nearing its conclusion. 'I'm disgusted that he could actually do something so heinous,' she said. 'I understand why the families are so upset, they were starved for justice, and I would 100% be, too. However, there was never any guarantee that he'd be given the death penalty. So I think him taking the plea deal was better for everyone. 'He's locked up for life. Let the inside deal with him.' Thomas Arntz, 29, shared his sister's sentiments. The result Wednesday removed any chance his childhood friend could be acquitted and get away with murder, he said. 'I personally feel relieved with the acceptance of the guilty plea,' Arntz told the Statesman, adding he would pray for the four victims' families. 'I am deeply sorry that Bryan's parents have to live with this as well. … I've always thought they were kind people, and they didn't deserve this. And for Bryan, God have mercy on his soul.' For Ben Roberts, 33, a former criminology graduate school colleague of Kohberger's at WSU, Wednesday's guilty pleas felt past due. The U.S. justice system is built upon the belief that a person is innocent until proven guilty, he said, and yet his former classmate's DNA at the crime scene, with no other suspects, strengthened his own suspicions. Still, Kohberger's arrest left him 'horrified,' he recalled. 'What surprises me at this point is that it dragged out so long, as I thought that a plea deal would never be reached,' Roberts told the Statesman by phone Thursday. 'My general impression was he was not going to stop fighting it, and to all of sudden have this about-face was very surprising — but a pleasant surprise.' Roberts spent several weeks just a few desks away from Kohberger in the days leading up to the close of the fall 2022 semester — just days and weeks after the murders. His graduate school classmate rarely exhibited much in the way of emotion around him, but also did not necessarily set off any red flags, he said. 'I noticed that unless he was deliberately trying to put on an appearance — if he didn't have the mask — he was kind of nonexistent, or hollow, I guess,' Roberts said. 'It's kind of like you're staring into an abyss. There's something human supposed to be there, and it isn't.' A casual hunter, Roberts said he's felt bad in the past when he's shot and killed a deer. He said he couldn't even fathom stabbing a person to death. 'I just can't even begin to get inside the head of somebody who could do something like that, and then attend class like it's business as usual,' Roberts said. 'That's just completely alien to me.' Roberts said he did not watch Wednesday's change-of-plea hearing. He didn't want to hear Kohberger's voice or see his face again, even though the latter has been difficult to escape the past two years, he noted. He was glad the high-profile case finally came to an end, and without the need for a monthslong trial. 'The first thing I said was that it was about damned time that the poor thing was put to rest,' Roberts said. For now, the court's gag order in the closely watched case, which restricts attorneys and their agents — including members of law enforcement for the state — is still in effect. Thompson asked that it remain so through sentencing, which Kohberger's defense did not oppose. The University of Idaho released a statement this week after word broke that Kohberger planned to change his plea to guilty in the shocking crime. 'We keep the families of the victims in our hearts as each deals with this outcome in their own way,' the state's namesake university wrote in the statement. 'We will never forget the four incredible lives taken on King Road, they are forever Vandals and each holds a place in our Vandal Family. Since that fateful day in November 2022 our university has become stronger, more intent on its purpose and more supportive of each other. And while we will not forget, we will heal.' Similarly, Moscow Mayor Art Bettge, in office in 2022 when the murders took place and upended the community, shared optimism that the city's residents might finally be freed from the clutches of the tragic incident. 'I recognize and understand that we all desire justice for the victims and their families,' he said in an emailed statement. 'My heart, and that of our entire community, go out to the families of the victims. It is my hope that this resolution can begin to provide a small measure of closure for the families and our community. What is clear is that no matter what form justice would have taken, nothing will bring back Ethan, Madison, Xana, and Kaylee, and our world will be forever darkened because of it.' WSU's comment after Kohberger's hearing was more succinct. A Statesman request to speak with professors in its criminal justice and criminology department who knew and taught Kohberger, including the semester he killed the U of I students, was again declined. 'Our hearts go out to the families, friends and colleagues impacted,' WSU's statement read. 'We do not have anything to add at this time.' After Wednesday's hearing, one main question remains for everyone, including the victims' families: Why? Why did Bryan Kohberger choose to take these four young lives, thereby essentially also ending his own, to some degree? That question was on the mind of Casey Arntz, Kohberger's Pennsylvania friend thrust into the spotlight and forced to deal with her own form of grief over the past two-plus years. 'I wasn't as close to him as my brother or my other friends, but we still hung out and talked a lot,' she said. 'He was in my parents' house. I was alone with him. 'I guess the one thing I would say to him is what everyone wants to say to him: 'Why would you do this? Why would you take the innocent lives of four beautiful people?' I can't even begin to imagine what he would say. How does someone justify their actions when they're so morbid?'
9 hours ago
Idaho college killings: Questions remain after stunning guilty plea
Bryan Kohberger has been behind bars for nearly 1,000 days. All the while, his lawyers had repeatedly insisted he was innocent. Now that the criminology student accused of killing four Idaho college students has instead pleaded guilty in a dramatic turn of events, he will almost certainly spend the rest of his days behind bars. The guilty plea and admission to the stabbing deaths -- just weeks from the planned start of his trial -- stunned many, in a case that had ceaselessly gripped headlines. What had been seen as a largely circumstantial case was suddenly crystallizing with every admission that Kohberger made to the judge on Wednesday. But many questions remained unanswered. While Kohberger admitted to the killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin -- students at a school mere miles away from his own and with no apparent connection to him -- many of the details remain a mystery, most notably: why he did it. A killing that sent shockwaves It has been nearly three years since the brutal stabbing deaths of Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin. The grisly crimes sent shockwaves rippling through the tight-knit college town of Moscow, and ignited a continuous firestorm across social and news media. Their bodies were found in the girls' off-campus house on King Road on Nov. 13, 2022. Near Mogen's body, a KA-BAR knife sheath was discovered. The knife has never been found. A more than six-week manhunt ensued, and many residents of the cozy college town began locking their doors at night for the first time. Whether the killer had skipped town – or still lurked among them – was anyone's guess. In the vacuum of real information being shared, conspiracy theorists and true crime hobbyists ran amok with false accusations. Then one day before New Year's Eve, a criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University was arrested, more than 2,000 miles from where the killings occurred. Kohberger was taken into custody at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, after driving cross-country to spend the holidays with family. He appeared to have no connection to the victims, save for their schools' proximity. And yet, prosecutors alleged, his DNA had been found on the button snap of the knife sheath. His phone pinged off cell towers in the King Road home's area the night the killings occurred, they said. His car was caught on surveillance footage taking multiple passes by what would soon become a crime scene, they said. One of two surviving roommates told police she had seen a masked intruder with "bushy eyebrows" that night – a description that has become a hallmark of the case and one, prosecutors said, applied to Kohberger, though his lawyers would later dispute that. After Kohberger's arrest, the lawyer representing him in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, said his client was "eager to be exonerated of these charges." The case was largely circumstantial. There was barely any eyewitness testimony. The murder weapon was missing. Kohberger was extradited to Idaho and indicted in May 2023. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He is now facing four back-to-back life sentences, as outlined in his plea agreement, for the crimes in addition to 10 years for the burglary count. His sentencing hearing has been set for July 23. Shroud of secrecy Even before Kohberger was named as a suspect, the murder case captured international attention despite – or perhaps fueled in part by – the heavy shroud of secrecy draped around its details. A strict gag order was imposed early on by the judge first overseeing the case that has forced the case to play out largely behind closed doors. Little by little though, the shape of the evidence began to emerge. A slow, steady drip of information has trickled from at-times heated hearings and literally thousands of court filings – and hundreds of thousands of pages of briefs. For years, Kohberger's lawyers had aggressively accused prosecutors of failing to do their due diligence on other possible leads and that they were too single-mindedly focused on their client. They have said investigators used a "false information trail" to target Kohberger and even suggested that police intentionally misled a judge to get the search warrants they wanted on Kohberger – a very serious allegation that ultimately went nowhere with the judge. Meanwhile, the defense has levied a litany of legal salvos trying to puncture holes in prosecutors' case, including casting doubt on the DNA evidence, asking to have the indictment dismissed, and fighting repeatedly to get the death penalty taken off the table on a wide range of grounds, pointing to everything from the U.S. Constitution and international human rights to evolving social norms, to his autism spectrum disorder diagnosis as a factor on jurors' perception, to needing more time for the morass of discovery and intensive preparation they must do in such a capital case. All those attempts were unsuccessful. If he had been convicted at trial, Kohberger could have faced execution by firing squad. That capital punishment method is newly legal in Idaho because of the ongoing nationwide shortage of the lethal injection drugs, as major pharmaceutical suppliers have withdrawn from the capital punishment market. What all the legal back-in-forth has succeeded in, however, is continuously pushing back the actual trial – to the frustration of some of the victims' families. But those delays in the judicial proceedings could not freeze time. The off-campus home where the killings occurred was demolished in December 2023, after the property owner donated the home to the school. The school made the call to tear it down as a "healing step," they said at the time, despite mixed feelings from the victims' families. The sunrise demolition took less than two hours. The Goncalves and Kernodle families had pointed to potential evidentiary value in preserving the house, while the parents of Ethan Chapin – whose brother and sister were still students at the university – were supportive of the demolition. Neither Kohberger's defense nor prosecutors had pushed back on the planned demolition, and the school said it would help stop "efforts to further sensationalize the crime scene." Lawyers for Kohberger have also denounced what they called "inflammatory" and "prejudicial" media coverage against their client. The trial, once slated to take place in Latah County, where the killings occurred, was finally moved to Boise after a long legal battle waged by the defense. Early one Sunday morning in September 2024, Kohberger was transported by an Idaho State Police plane from the Latah County Jail, where he had been held, to Ada County. In both facilities, Kohberger has been housed by himself, for his own and others' safety, authorities have said. A 'so-called alibi' unravels His lawyers had said that Kohberger was driving around alone on the night the killings occurred, and the reason his phone stopped reporting from the network in the critical window when the killings occurred is because he was out in a very remote area, stargazing. It's an alibi that both judges who have overseen the case summarily scoffed at: Judge John Judge in Moscow, dubbing it a "so-called" alibi; Judge Steven Hippler in Boise, saying "at this point, [Kohberger] has not provided an alibi, partial or otherwise." Some of the search warrants served on Kohberger's online shopping indicated curiosities far earthlier than the cosmos, prosecutors said. Eight months before four Idaho college students would be found stabbed to death, as ABC News has previously reported, the man accused of the bloody killing spree bought a knife that matches what prosecutors said could be the murder weapon. Kohberger's lawyers, while arguing his innocence, had said the whole Kohberger family had access to that Amazon account. But it was Kohberger's buy, prosecutors said. "He purchased online a KA-BAR knife and sheath with an Amazon gift card," prosecutor Bill Thompson said at Wednesday's plea hearing. Prosecutors also pointed to Kohberger's own writings, including in their court briefs a homework assignment from his master's degree program that they said was essentially a crime scene how-to guide that showed he had been not just a scholar of crime – he knew how to cover his tracks after committing murder. It was a point Thompson explicitly made at Wednesday's plea hearing. "The defendant has studied crime. In fact, he did a detailed paper on crime scene processing when he was working on his pre doctorate degrees, and he had that knowledge and skill," Thompson said. Meanwhile as the case dragged on, its cost mushroomed. The financial burden has largely been borne by the local community itself. In 2022, Idaho Governor Brad Little had committed up to $1 million in emergency funds to support the manhunt and investigation, which has helped defray some of the expense. The change in venue to Boise would have also brought additional costs as prosecutors and others would have had to travel more than five hours to Boise for what was expected to be a three-month trial. Now, that trial, where the actual evidence would finally come to light, will never occur. And at least for now, the case comes to a close much like it started: with still-unanswered questions.
