OAN Staff Abril Elfi
1:50 PM – Thursday, July 3, 2025
Bryan Kohberger, the man who pleaded guilty to the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, is expected to serve his sentence at one of America’s worst prisons.
Kohberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms. He will serve his sentence at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI), where he will remain for the rest of his life
The institution, which opened in 1989, has hosted Idaho’s “most disruptive male residents” and violent criminals, including Chad Daybell, the child murderer and husband of “Doomsday” cult mom Lori Vallow, as well as two of Idaho’s most notorious serial killers.
IMSI was designated one of the “15 Worst Prisons in America” by Security Journal Americas in 2024, with other notorious prisons such as Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as “The Farm,” San Quentin in California, and Attica Correctional Facility in western New York.
The magazine emphasized the claimed brutal treatment of detainees, extensive usage of solitary confinement, and a lack of mental health services.
Violence between convicts, claims of excessive force by correctional personnel, and overcrowding all contributed to “a tense and volatile environment,” according to the site.
In 2016, the newly appointed director of the Idaho Department of Correction sought to modify the state’s usage of solitary confinement as punishment.
According to KBOI, several of the convicts were held in solitary confinement for 23 hours every day. This meant little to no human interaction, food in cells, and only three showers each week, a pattern some convicts have followed for decades.
“97 percent of these guys are going to get out and walk into an Idaho community,” Kempf told KBOI. “If we treat them like crap, if we treat them like animals, they’re going to walk out of a prison like that.”
“You do that for 10 or 15 years, you’ve created a monster out of that person,” he said.
On Wednesday, Kohberger pleaded guilty to one count of burglary and four first-degree murder counts during the plea hearing.
The case surrounds four college students, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were all murdered in a girls’ off-campus house on November 13, 2022.
Earlier this week, Kohberger had accepted a plea deal in exchange for Idaho prosecutors to drop the death penalty.
Regarding the case’s next steps, Judge Steven Hippler scheduled the sentencing for July 23rd. During that time, victims and family members will be able to deliver their own statements.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts