NEWS
PREPARING FOR DEATH IDOC has tight schedule leading up to execution GEORGE PRENTICE
COURTESY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION
with our partners from a security standpoint, Idahoans got their first glimpse of F Block in the Idaho Maximum Security Institution when there will certainly be expenses. We’re already doing some tabletop exercises with the Idaho boiseweekly.com published its photograph on State Police, the Idaho Guard, Boise Police and Oct. 20. On Friday, Nov. 18, convicted rapist and murderer Paul Rhoades is slated to get his Kuna Fire. They’re all involved. first, and last, look at the execution chamber. Will a team of physicians be a part of the Brent Reinke, the man in charge of execution process? Rhoades’ execution, in addition to managing There will be an escort team, a medical 6,700 other inmates in more than a dozen team and an injection team. The identities of facilities, has been preparing for the fateful those teams will all remain concealed. procedure for more than a year. This will be Reinke’s first Can you speak professional to maintaining an involvement in an appropriate, strucexecution. He has tured environment been director of for your staff and the Idaho Departinmates over the ment of Correcnext few weeks? tion since 2007. If We’re conRhoades is indeed cerned about our put to death on inmate populaNov. 18, his will tion, but above all, be the first Idaho we’re concerned execution since about our staff 1994 and only the because of the second since 1957. professionalism BW sat down that they have with Reinke and will need to to talk about maintain. We’re Rhoades and the Idaho’s state-of-the-art execution chamber in F Block. drafting a message detailed schedule for our inmate leading up to population on the anticipated what kind of disruptions they can expect, execution. especially when we are within the 24-hour This extraordinary event is certainly outside window to the event. We want to keep as minimal an interruption to our inmate popuof your day-to-day operations. lation as we can. And we understand that I first met with Gov. [C.L. “Butch”] Otthey’re no different than those on the outside ter a year ago, and we were looking at the of the fence in wanting to know what’s going possibility of being here today. We wanted to on. The thing we’re letting our staff know is make sure as we moved forward that we had an execution chamber that encompassed three that this is not about us. We’ve got to focus on the victims. We’ve got to focus on making areas—professionalism, respect and dignity. sure that what the juries found, and what the court has ordered, be carried out to the best of What does that mean? our ability with professionalism, respect and a It’s a state-of-the-art execution chamber. dignified fashion. We spent some time with a number of our staff involved in the 1994 execution. We’re What do you know about Rhoades? concerned about lessons learned from them, A fair amount. Our warden has been and we’ve been watching the United States Supreme Court, particularly regarding cases in working with him very intently. He’s in the F Block holding cell now. We’re going to treat Arizona and Washington where they recently him with as much dignity as we can, knowing conducted executions. As we move forward, the future. everything will be covered—as we move from 14 days to seven days, down to 24 hours, 12 How would you characterize his behavior hours and the event itself. since he has been behind bars? The feedback I have received from staff Is there an expense to this event? is that, at times, he has good days and he Of course there is. has bad days, as do many of our individuals on Death Row. But at this point, I’m not Do you have a sense of what that expense equipped to speak to his character or how he’s will be? addressing the past. We’ll know when we’re done. As we work WWW. B OISEWEEKLY.C O M
BOISEweekly | OCTOBER 26 – NOVEMBER 1, 2011 | 11