Bryan Kohberger, who was sentenced this week for 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) in Kuna, 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 has joined them after he was transferred from the Ada County Jail on Wednesday, after Judge Steven Hippler handed down four life sentences for the slayings of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, a case that rocked the small college town of Moscow in November 2022.
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.
On July 2, just weeks before his trial was supposed to begin, Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders in exchange for spending the rest of his life in prison and avoiding the death penalty.
He has been held at the Ada County Jail in Boise under maximum security since the trial was moved from Moscow. But now it’s likely 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 — and he’s already arrived to the prison.
First, Kohberger will go through two weeks of a Reception and Diagnostic Unit (RDU) process, to “evaluate their needs and determine appropriate housing placement,” Blake Lopez, the Public Information Officer for IDOC, told The Independent. The process takes 7-14 days, Lopez added.
“In this case, the RDU process is taking place in the medical unit at Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI),” Lopez continued. “We wait until a person completes RDU to determine their classification, housing placement, and privileges.”
The facility in Kuna is the only max security prison in the state and is 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.
-kohberger-prison.png)
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 without the possibility of parole sentence that was handed down to him this week after the families of the victims and one of the surviving roommates faced the killer in a packed courtroom.
Kohberger was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $270,000 in fines and civil penalties.
When it was his turn to speak in court, Kohberger said, “I respectfully decline,” shedding no light on why he slipped into the rental home in Moscow through a sliding glass door early on Nov. 13, 2022, and stabbed four of the students inside.
With no explanation offered and no known link between the killer and the victims, the motive behind one of the most shocking crimes in Idaho history remains a mystery.
