ID & TX: Idaho dollars for Texas squalor

Very big expatriate - Idahoan thanks to Scott Henson of Grits for Breakfast for his watchdog work in general, and for his concern for some benighted Idahoans languishing in Texas private prisons:

The blog Texas Prison Bidness has updates on what's happening with Idaho prisoners who were pulled out of the Geo Group facility in Dickens County after a suicide prompted an investigation of poor conditions:

• Idaho moving inmates yet again in Geo prison shell game

• Idaho to send inmates to scandal-ridden Geo Val Verde Prison

• While Geo scandals continue, executives get rich

• Idaho planning to send more prisoners to Geo Group; what is Reinke thinking?

It's a shame when a blogger in Austin cares more about the welfare of some Idahoans than the governor in Boise, but as Scott noted last week:

I guess corrections officials in Idaho figured, "out of sight, out of mind." I often think that's how a lot of folks feel about people in prison, generally...

Bonus link goes to this news item: Prison firms give cash to pols to spur Idaho privatization

Update 07/15/07: fellow Idahoan The Mountain Goat is raising the alarm back home: The Growing Idaho Inmate Scandal