Prisoners' Rights

A culture of punishment has led the United States to rely on incarceration more heavily than any other country in the world. Idaho has embraced a punitive approach to crime, making it one of the top states for imprisonment. The human costs of mass incarceration are staggering, and the burden falls disproportionately on women, trans folks, people of color, and those experiencing poverty.

Day after day, the constitutional rights of Idaho’s incarcerated community are ignored. Hundreds of prisoners report egregious rights violations each year; inadequate or inaccessible health care, poor living conditions, and lack of access to the courts are commonplace in Idaho. That's why we’re fighting for prisoners’ rights and have done so for decades. Our prisoners’ rights work includes:

• Empowering incarcerated people with knowledge of their rights.

• Fighting the ever-increasing punitive laws in the statehouse.

• Defending the constitutional rights of incarcerated Idahoans in the courts.

• Investigating and collecting data on persistent human rights violations in Idaho jails and prisons.

• Leading public education and storytelling initiatives to raise awareness about the injustices occurring in Idaho’s prison system.

• Advocating for the rights and dignity of individuals who are sentenced to death and against expanded use and methods of execution in Idaho.

Through advocacy, lawsuits, and public education, we are fighting for the safety and dignity of a community often forgotten by the outside world.

The incarcerated community in Idaho faces a host of civil liberties violations, including inhumane prison conditions, the inability to access critical health care services, and infringement on First Amendment rights.

The ACLU of Idaho consistently receives reports from incarcerated Idahoans whose rights have been violated. In fact, more than half of the violations we see are from the incarcerated community. Our team responds to these intakes with comprehensive information to empower incarcerated folks to understand their constitutional rights and navigate the criminal legal system.

A handbook for Idaho prisoners

In 2023, the ACLU of Idaho published an illustrated handbook to educate Idaho prisoners on their rights. The handbook, written as a graphic novel, includes information on medical care services, dietary requests, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and education. It also contains chapters on complaints, grievances, and life inside for incarcerated folks. The ACLU published the handbook in collaboration with Massachusetts-based writer and lawyer Katherine Fustich and Nicholas Showers-Glover, an artist currently incarcerated in Alaska.

Incarcerated people can request a free copy from the ACLU of Idaho, or look for a copy in their prison law library.

The book can also be purchased on Amazon: Your Rights on the Inside: A Handbook for Incarcerated Folks

The ACLU of Idaho continues to focus on LGBTQ+ rights, and specifically transgender justice, as a priority issue area, and this extends to our work in prisoners’ rights.

Transgender individuals incarcerated in jails and prisons around the country continue to face significantly higher rates of violence, sexual harassment, and discrimination compared to their cisgender counterparts. The Marshall Project reports that, “in one federal study, 37% of incarcerated transgender people reported having been sexually assaulted in prison, versus 3% of everyone else behind bars.”

Our work is concentrated in ensuring transgender prisoners can get the health care they need, fighting for them to be housed in prisons aligned with their gender identity, and intervening when discrimination and harassment occur.

Safeguarding Health Care Access for the Incarcerated Trans Community

In response to a 2024 Idaho law prohibiting public funds from being used to provide gender-affirming medical care, we filed a lawsuit to protect the incarcerated trans community.

We believe that by denying life-saving medical care to prisoners who have no option to seek that care in other states, Idaho is violating trans folks’ Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

Currently, a preliminary injunction is allowing incarcerated trans folks to access this critical medical care while litigation continues.

Learn more about our Robinson v. Labrador lawsuit

Additionally, we joined a successful lawsuit in 2019 that allowed an incarcerated transgender woman in Idaho to receive a medically necessary gender confirmation surgery.

Learn more about Edmo v. Idaho Department of Correction and Corizon, Inc.

The ACLU of Idaho is a staunch, persistent opponent of cruel and unusual punishment in Idaho prisons. This includes Idaho’s inhumane and extreme death penalty laws.

In recent years, Idaho lawmakers have advanced a slate of cruel and unprecedented legislation – expanding how and when the state uses death as punishment. Recent death penalty laws include:

• In 2023, lawmakers approved the use of a firing squad in executions, citing a shortage of lethal injection drugs. Firing squad executions have not been used in any U.S. state for more than a decade.

• In 2025, lawmakers made a firing squad the primary means of execution in Idaho. To date, Idaho is the first and only state to do so.

• In 2025, lawmakers expanded the list of crimes punishable by death, despite nearly 50 years of settled Supreme Court precedent prohibiting such a move.

We unequivocally oppose these unusual, unprecedented, and unlawful actions from our elected officials. We remain firmly committed to wholesale repeal and abolition of the death penalty in Idaho and across the U.S.; capital punishment is a persistently flawed and inhumane system.

The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is clear: every citizen has a right to legal counsel when accused of a crime. Each year, most of the 27,000 Idahoans accused of crimes cannot afford a private attorney. But the very foundations of our criminal legal system ensure that, regardless of ability to pay, every Idahoan has the right to adequate legal counsel. In fact, Idaho public defenders are supposed to provide the very kind of legal representation promised by the Sixth Amendment.

Unfortunately, access to adequate legal counsel is not the reality for many: despite legislative reform and ongoing litigation, countless Idahoans’ Sixth Amendment rights remain at risk.

As our court filings show, Idahoans regularly attend court hearings without adequate representation, and defendants are held without bail while they await assignment to a public defender. Idaho public defenders face impossible caseloads, while the new statewide public defense system continues to operate with no oversight, independent monitoring, or any meaningful accountability mechanisms.

For over a decade, we have advocated for the tens of thousands of Idahoans impacted by Idaho’s defective public defense system. Our class action lawsuit, Tucker v. State of Idaho, demands an end to Idaho’s public defense crisis.

Learn more about our public defense reform work.

Looking for information on you or your loved one’s rights as a prisoner in Idaho? Visit our Prisoner’s Rights page.

Read our Blueprint for Smart Justice report.