Voters passed a jail inspection measure in 2022. The new policy allows a member of the public to accompany a city commissioner on the twice-annual visits. Oregon state law requires county commissioners to inspect local jails once per year to provide publi ...
23 Aug 2023 - Jeremiah Hayden
Multnomah County had only released the cause of two jail deaths prior to the order amid surge of six deaths in three months Editor’s note: This story discusses self-harm. If you or people you know are at risk of self-harm, the National Suicide Prevention ...
18 Aug 2023 - Jeremiah Hayden and K. Rambo
Twice the number of prisoners in county jails have died in the last three months than in all of 2021 and 2022 A 36-year-old prisoner in Portland’s downtown Multnomah County Detention Center, or MCDC, died Aug. 1, according to the Multnomah County Sherif ...
3 Aug 2023 - Jeremiah Hayden
State agencies can’t agree on who’s responsible. Experts say this is a transparency problem. Federal laws require state prisons to track all in-custody deaths, but a Street Roots investigation shows these reports are often incomplete in Oregon. Street Roo ...
28 Dec 2022 - Piper McDaniel
Anomalies in public data regarding COVID-19 protocols cause concern Like elsewhere in the state, COVID-19 isn’t over inside Oregon’s prisons. Amid a growing outbreak at Coffee Creek Intake Center and pending lawsuits regarding the Oregon Department of Cor ...
8 Jun 2022 - Melanie Henshaw
After deadliest year in recent history in Oregon prisons, a legal nonprofit was granted class action status for an ongoing lawsuit about COVID-19 protocols. The ODOC says the suit justifies their lack of transparency. A total of 52 prisoners died in custo ...
18 May 2022 - Melanie Henshaw and Piper McDaniel
Oregon Department of Corrections prisoner deaths approaching annual record The Oregon Department of Corrections has recorded an average of nearly one prisoner death per week since mid-September. One person died just one month after being admitted into Ore ...
1 Dec 2021 - Latisha Jensen
Youth, Rights & Justice’s new expunction clinic will assist eligible people in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties seal juvenile charges that often bar them from housing and job opportunities Thousands of Oregon children are referred to juven ...
6 Oct 2021 - Taylor Griggs
Salem man held in jail despite no criminal charges is clear violation of civil rights, attorneys say A 27-year-old Salem man with a developmental disability and mental illness has been held in the Marion County Jail for more than two months with no crimin ...
18 Aug 2021 - Henry Brannan
Advocates say jail is dangerous for people with mental illness, but the state psychiatric hospital cites red tape and a limited number of beds Despite court orders, 16 people found guilty except for insanity in Oregon are being held in jail rather than tr ...
21 Jul 2021 - Henry Brannan