KUNA, Idaho — When it's this cold outside, it impacts people inside our prisons.
Thursday was the first time we got above freezing in six days in the Treasure Valley -- for at least three of those days some inmates at the Idaho State Correctional Center (ISCC) in Kuna were fighting what they call frigid temperatures.
An inmate's mom reached out to 7 Investigates to advocate for her son who's incarcerated there.
"He's not treated humanely. None of them are," said Susan Larsen, whose son Donnie Unmacht, has been incarcerated at ISCC for seven years.
Donnie called his mom from the prison a few days ago in the midst of an extreme cold snap when lows in Southern Idaho hit single - and even negative - digits.
"He called to talk to me and I asked how things were going and he said temperatures inside were about - he guesstimated - 45 degrees," Larsen said, "there was no heat and they have ceiling vents and there was snow coming through the ceiling vents into his unit. And he asked if I could please reach out to you so we can just shed some light on it to maybe help get the heat turned on."
Larsen says her son didn't feel heard when he and his fellow inmates went to the correction officers about the issue.
"I do my very best to make sure he's treated like a person, not a number, not an animal, but a person," Larsen added.
"He feels cold. Forty degrees would be extreme. I wouldn't house someone in a unit that was 40 degrees. That wouldn't be acceptable. We would be moving guys out and finding alternative housing for them if I had a unit operating at that level," ISCC Warden Randy Valley told 7 Investigates. He says no tier in the prison ever dropped into the 40's.
Acceptable inside the prison is between 65 degrees in the winter and 85 in the summer. Beyond that, ISCC's warden says they'll call maintenance crews, which they did this time. Valley says resident maintenance staff addressed some of the heating issues over the weekend, but he still working to determine whether on-call maintenance crews were called in over the weekend or on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to start working on the HVAC system.
"Anytime we get a significant drop in temperature it puts a strain on our system. It's a large facility, it has 130-plus HVAC units on the roof and so you're gonna have issues," Valley said, "So we had some tiers that dropped. We had no equipment fail."
He says snow wasn't coming through the vents and the heaters were on. But they weren't working "optimally".
When temps are an issue, Valley says they measure every block in the prison using digital folding pocket thermometers and they use infrared thermometers to measure surfaces multiple times a day.
"We had some temperatures that got into the low 60's. I think we had one area in the high 50's. And so we called out maintenance and they've been working on it for days, pushing the temps up," Valley added.
Larsen's son tier was among two tiers that dipped the lowest over the past week.
"My son's unit, in particular, didn't even get an extra blanket," Larsen said.
Valley claims they were able to pass out extra blankets to those who wanted them, telling 7 Investigates, "We were able to cover it."
But Larsen is disheartened and concerned that it took days for the heaters to be up and working properly.
"You can't deprive them their basic human rights which is heat and cool. It's dangerous," Larsen said, "It's just not an OK way for anyone, regardless of why they're incarcerated, it is not OK for them to have to live like that. [Donnie] really only brings this stuff to me if he feels like he's being treated absolutely unfairly. These, I believe, are dangerous. We are in an extreme cold wave right now and to not get on top of fixing the heater sooner when it's already complained about is unreasonable."
On Thursday, as temps finally rose outside, so did temps inside ISCC. New digital thermometers that Valley bought after we started asking questions showed Unmacht's tier up into the 70's.
"As far as I’m aware systems are all running. Everything is operating in a normal range today," Valley added.
While Valley says he hasn't heard about snow coming through the vents, the roof is leaking, which will pose more problems as the snow melts. They plan to get a new roof and HVAC units starting this summer. Until then, Valley says they'll move residents to a new bed if they're in an area with a leak.
KTVB’s award winning investigative team reports on local, crime, and breaking news across Idaho.
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