Another Quiet Kill Inside the System—No Justification, No Oversight, No Reform
For 45 years, intramural sports at ISCI gave hundreds of incarcerated people structure, purpose, and something to look forward to. This week, that ended. What follows is David’s response—unfiltered, furious, and painfully clear. This is what it looks like when a meaningful, no-cost program is killed with no accountability.
Cpt. Gibney wrote in a response to a Concern Form that soccer, football, and softball are off the table (presumably cuz the ballfields are in such bad shape), but that we may do basketball—but it won’t be intramural.
What that means is, if we want to organize a little league to play only within our Rec cohort and only on our Rec times, then go ahead. Let me put that in perspective.
The Idaho State Correctional Institution is divided into two Recreation cohorts—but only for Rec. Inmates still intermingle in school, work, chapel, chow, and medical. The cohort split isn’t about safety; it’s about gym capacity. Always has been.
Pre-COVID, ISCI’s intramural basketball league ran about 9 teams of 10 guys. We played double round robin. 100 games. Over three months. Games ran weeknights and Saturdays—avoiding conflict with school and work so guys could actually participate. We trained refs. We scrimmaged. We built something.
The key was this: one of your weekly games was offsides, meaning you’d play outside your normal rec time. Rec would schedule you, and you’d be called out—just like they do for education or medical. You didn’t lose Rec time—you just reshuffled it. That was the incentive. It was real Rec. Structured. Balanced. Inclusive.
But now? With no intramural framework, and the Rec cohorts separated, it’s just… pickup. You lose Rec time to play a game against the same guys you already hoop with during your normal period. The league becomes meaningless.
Are you starting to smell the bullshit?
Look, I’ve developed tolerance for loss. As a prisoner, I’ve sent out all my art, been limited in what books or letters I can keep. I’ve lost shoes and rugs in bullshit shakedowns. I’ve lost dozens of friends to the grave over 20 years.
But I can’t get over this.
ISCI will not be bringing back any intramural sports. They’ll blame “staffing” or “security”—the usual made-up reasons. No audits. No accountability. Just lazy decisions from an admin trained in max-security lockdown culture. It’s easier for them to kill programs than support people.
And why would they want to support us? Recidivism is job security.
We had hoped the new warden would bring something different—more programs, less antagonism, a shred of vision. But it looks like we’re just getting another serving of the same warmed-over garbage.
So yeah. Another program bites the dust.
A big one, too—serving 500 inmates a year. Structured team activities. Meaningful goals. Zero cost to the state.
Gone because no one’s watching the ones in charge.
Sports leagues are now dead at ISCI.
