Bryan Kohberger, the former criminology PhD student who admitted to the chilling murders of four University of Idaho students, has officially begun his life sentence in one of the most isolated corners of the state’s prison system.
Just days after receiving four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, Kohberger was moved to solitary confinement inside J Block at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution. The decision, confirmed by state officials, places him in long-term restrictive housing, a status typically reserved for the most high-risk or high-profile inmates.
Kohberger’s new environment is stark. Prisoners in J Block’s restrictive housing are confined to single-person cells, allowed just one hour of outdoor time daily, and must be restrained when moved within the facility. Showers are limited to every other day, and most forms of social interaction are prohibited. His only contact with the outside world will come through monitored digital communication and limited commissary privileges.
His infamous neighbours include Chad Daybell, the convicted murderer linked to the ‘Doomsday’ killings that inspired a Netflix true-crime series. The prison unit houses a mix of general population inmates, those in protective custody, and others on death row.
Kohberger’s sentencing came after he struck a plea deal to avoid capital punishment, pleading guilty in early July to the brutal 2022 stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in Moscow, Idaho. The victims, all students, were attacked in their off-campus home, an act that stunned the nation and prompted months of speculation before Kohberger’s arrest.
Now, more than two years later, Kohberger has entered what will likely be a lifetime of silence, concrete, and isolation, far from the classrooms he once lectured in, and even farther from the lives he stole.
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