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.
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“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.
