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Bryan Kohberger is expected to spend the rest of his life at Idaho’s toughest prison, the Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI), known for violent guards, inmate riots, and unsanitary conditions.
The 30-year-old, convicted of killing four University of Idaho students, will join infamous inmates like Chad Daybell and two of the state’s most notorious serial killers. IMSI, opened in 1989, houses Idaho’s most violent and disruptive male offenders.
Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI) has earned a reputation as one of the toughest prisons in the U.S. In 2024, Security Journal Americas ranked it among the “15 Worst Prisons in America,” alongside notorious facilities like San Quentin and Attica. The outlet cited harsh inmate treatment, excessive solitary confinement, limited mental health care, and frequent violence. Overcrowding and alleged brutality by guards contribute to what it called a “tense and volatile environment.”
Many inmates are held in solitary for 23 hours a day, with minimal human contact, meals in their cells, and just three showers a week—conditions some endure for decades.
Kohberger has been held in maximum security at Ada County Jail in Boise since his trial moved to the state capital. After pleading guilty to the 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students, he’s expected to be transferred to the IMSI, about 10 miles away, after his July 23 sentencing. IMSI is a remote, heavily fortified prison with double fences, razor wire, electronic surveillance, and 24-hour armed patrols.
Last year, 90 inmates there staged a hunger strike demanding improved conditions and services. Inmates at IMSI complained of feces-covered recreation cages, extended isolation, delayed medical care, and a filthy HVAC system likened to a “biohazard,” according to the Idaho Statesman. The prison had previously cut services, including some religious access, due to severe COVID-19-related staff shortages in 2020.
To end the protest, prison staff used pepper spray and tear gas, the Department of Corrections confirmed. Officials also claimed the protest leaders were pushing to have housing segregated by gang and race.
