Staff sexual abuse in Idaho women’s prisons goes largely unchecked

Editor’s note: “Guarded by Predators” is a new investigative series exposing rape and abuse by Idaho’s prison guards and the system that shields them. This is the introduction, and EastIdahoNews.com will publish the first installment Tuesday. Find the entire series at investigatewest.org/guarded-by-predators.

BOISE (InvestigateWest) — In Idaho prisons, more than two dozen women say guards prey on them with little fear of consequences — and those who speak up are often punished.

Their accounts, gathered over an almost yearlong investigation, reveal the chilling reality of incarceration in a state that locks up women at the nation’s highest rate.

Since 2020, there have been at least 59 documented allegations of staff sexually abusing imprisoned women, InvestigateWest has found. That numbe