Brad Cox, administrative sergeant with the Kootenai County jail, can't pin down just went wrong with quelling inmate violence at Idaho Correctional Center.

But he does know why that hasn't been a problem at the county jail.

"We have a zero tolerance of any kind of inappropriate or violent type behavior," he said.

It's a typical week if several squabbles break out between inmates in the general population's open dormitory, he said.

The staff's strategy is to separate instigators immediately.

Trouble makers, as well as any inmates with histories of violent behavior, are held in community pods segregated from the general population. At night, unlike the low-risk inmates who sleep in bunks side by side, more aggressive inmates are placed in hard lockdown cells.

The most violent inmates are in 23-hour lockdown, Cox added.

"We need to maintain not only the safety of the inmates and the staff, but of the violent inmates themselves," he said. "If real problems occur, they could get themselves hurt."

The only problem is when there aren't enough lockdown cells to go around, he said.

When that happens - and it's been happening for awhile - violent inmates are shipped to outside facilities.

There are about 50 inmates currently held off-site, Cox said, up from 16 this April. When the Kootenai County commissioners were campaigning for a jail expansion, they had predicted the off-site housing could cost millions over the next 10 years.

"I'll guarantee you it will be a lot more expensive over a long run than if we had the funds to be able to just expand the jail," Cox said.

The off-site housing is worth keeping the general inmate population safe, Cox added, and also minimizes the jail's liability when violence does occur.

"Any lawsuits that come through, typically those lawsuits won't go too far, as long as we've done everything we can to minimize those situations," he said.

Also key to maintaining authority at the jail is for staff to act professionally, Cox emphasized.

"The term fair but firm is in order here," he said. "We treat everybody here with respect. It doesn't matter what their crime was, they're going to give what you put out."

There are currently 300 inmates at the county jail. Of those, 73 percent have one or more felony charges.

Inmates can serve up to a one-year sentence at the jail. Those with longer sentences are sent to the state prison.

Cox acknowledged that prison inmates might be more prone to violence.

"It would be safe to say prisons are getting folks sentenced for over a year, and dealing with people with charges more severe," he said.

Cox believes that the jail staff's efficient response to removing those with hot tempers is why brawls have never escalated to riots.

"I attribute that to just the professional way of our staff handling themselves," he said.

By REBECCA BOONE

Associated Press

BOISE - The surveillance video from the overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang on a prison guard station window, pleading for help. Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but no one intervenes when Elabed is knocked unconscious.

No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating.

Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated Press show officers watching the beating for several minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for critics who claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center uses inmate-on-inmate violence to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or risk being moved to extremely violent units.

On Tuesday, hours after the AP published the video, the top federal prosecutor in Idaho told the AP that the FBI has been investigating whether guards violated the civil rights of inmates at the prison, which is run by the Corrections Corporation of America.

The investigation concerns the prison's rate of violence and covers multiple assaults between inmates, including the attack on Elabed, U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson said.

CCA spokesman Steve Owen said the company is cooperating with federal agents, as it has with other law enforcement overseeing the prisons.

Lawsuits from inmates contend the company denies prisoners medical treatment as a way of covering up the assaults. They have dubbed the Idaho lockup "gladiator school" because it is so violent.

The AP initially sought a copy of the videos shot on Jan. 18 from state court, but Idaho 4th District Judge Patrick Owen denied that request. The AP had already obtained a copy and decided to publish the videos after a person familiar with the case verified their authenticity.

The videos show at least three guards watching as Elabed was stomped on a dozen times. At no time during the recorded sequence did anyone try to pull away James Haver, a short, slight man.

About two minutes after Haver stopped the beating of his own accord, the metal cellblock door was unlocked. Haver was handcuffed and Elabed was examined for signs of life. He bled inside his skull and would spend three days in a coma.

CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, said it was "highly disappointed and deeply concerned" over AP's decision to release the videos.

"Public release of the video poses an unnecessary security risk to our staff, the inmates entrusted to our care, and ultimately to the public," the prison company said in a statement.

Violence behind bars and misconduct by guards is common, regardless of whether prisons are run by the government or private companies. CCA, which oversees some 75,000 inmates in more than 60 facilities under contracts with the federal government, 19 states and the District of Columbia, is no exception.

A year ago, CCA and another company, Dominion Correctional Services LLC, agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit in which the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission claimed male officers at a prison in Colorado forced female workers to perform sex acts to keep their jobs.