Bryan Kohberger

By Jillian Pikora From Daily Voice

Bryan Kohberger has been transferred to long-term restrictive housing in J Block at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, prison documents confirmed on Saturday, Aug. 2. 

The move comes less than a week after Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the savage stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in 2022.

Life Behind Bars

Kohberger, 30, will now spend nearly all his time alone. IDOC officials said inmates in long-term restrictive housing are confined to single-person cells, allowed one hour of outdoor recreation daily, and permitted to shower every other day.

He will be escorted in restraints whenever he is moved, officials explained.

The unit, known as J Block, can house up to 128 people — including inmates in protective custody and those on death row. Kohberger’s listing on the IDOC website confirms his placement there.

The Sentence

He was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania and linked to the murders through DNA, cellphone data, and surveillance footage, as previously reported by Daily Voice.

Kohberger pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty — just one week before the trial, as we reported at the time. 

On July 23, Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four consecutive life terms without parole, along with a 10-year burglary sentence and $270,000 in fines, as Daily Voice previously reported. At the hearing, the victims’ families delivered searing impact statements, with some calling him a “coward” and others offering forgiveness. Kohberger declined to speak.

The victims — Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 — were killed inside their Moscow rental home on Nov. 13, 2022.

Prison Known For Housing ‘Most Dangerous’

The Idaho Maximum Security Institution, located in Kuna, was built in 1989 to hold the state’s “most dangerous and volatile male residents,” according to IDOC. The prison has a double perimeter fence topped with razor wire and an electronic detection system. It can house up to 535 inmates.

Last year, more than 90 prisoners there launched a hunger strike over conditions in solitary confinement, complaining about cleanliness and recreation. Officials responded that recreation enclosures were regularly cleaned.

Questions Remain

Kohberger has never revealed a motive for the killings. The victims’ families have said they still don’t know why their children were murdered, a painful absence of closure nearly three years after the attack.

Click here to read all Daily Voice's coverage on this case.