IDAHO, USA — What most people consider mundane — dimming light switches and big windows with views — are much more special in prison.
“For me, it allows me to breathe a little bit easier,” incarcerated person Jonathan William Spickler said. “It allows me to feel a little bit better about myself in a situation where I've become somewhat vulnerable to that due to my own actions.”
Spicker has been in and out of prison since 1998 because of substance abuse issues. He currently serves time at one of the Idaho Department of Correction’s traditional facilities.
But that will soon change.
He and Timothy Jones, another man held in the jail, hope to move into South Idaho Correctional Institution’s new East Dorm for men. IDOC staff built the dorm with updated incarceration philosophies in mind.
All 152 men living there will have more privacy. Director Josh Tewalt said they will also have more personal responsibilities, like cooking, doing laundry and other chores.
Tewalt said cultivating these skills hopefully reduces recidivism rates (people going back to prison).
“To the extent that we can make prison more like real life, we’re better preparing the vast majority of people sentenced to our custody to make the best decisions when it counts,” Tewalt said. “And that’s when they’re back in our community.”
Jones believes making good decisions in prison pays off. He has been incarcerated since 2018 for drug trafficking.
While initially angry, Jones said he eventually channeled that emotion into something more positive — becoming a leader.
“I’ve made a choice that since I have to be here, I have to make sure that I’m prepared to go home to my family,” he said.
Jones said the dorm will also foster more positive guard-incarceree relationships. Typically, he said they are just thought of as a number.
“[Here], you’re being treated like a human being,” he said. “Interactions between residents and guards, it's going to be a lot. Even this weekend, there's a residence versus staff softball game.”
In the past, Tewalt said people who are incarcerated are put in an environment where they only get to make one decision. That decision is whether to comply with what they’re told to do.
With this new dorm, he said inmates take care of themselves.
All of the men should be moved in by July 1. As a chef, Spickler said he looks forward to using the kitchen amenities. Additionally, he can share meals he cooks with fellow men.
He said having the opportunity to do those everyday things makes a huge difference.
“It’s just another step back into society, as compared to being a room, a cell that has a toilet in it where there's zero privacy,” Spickler said. “It's hard to even have respect for yourself at those points in time.”
Jones said he is looking forward to the more spacious phone wall. In addition to regular visitations, he calls his wife and 7-year-old son daily.
“That special time in the morning of waking up your loved one is huge on keeping that closeness between you and your family, especially when you're incarcerated,” he said.
Unfortunately, Tewalt believes there have not been enough options for men like Jones and Spickler, who actively work on bettering themselves.
He said a lot of people think, “if we make prisons hard, people won’t want to come back.”
That is not true, Tewalt said. Most people who come to prison want to keep their heads down, do their time and get better.
“For those folks, are we doing a good enough job of creating an environment that’s conducive to that? In the past, I’d say no,” Tewalt said. “With the new dorm opening up, I’d say it’s a step in the right direction.”
In total, the dorm cost nearly 14 million dollars. Tewalt said the legislature appropriated that money a few years ago.
He said they are not stopping with the men’s East dorm. They hope to build a similar women’s dorm and replace some of the minimum-security, outdated housing with this new approach.
It is an approach Jones appreciates and said is long overdue.
“When I leave here, people will be like, he lived there,” he said. He went here; he did this; he survived this, and this is what he left.”
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