An advocacy group for incarcerated people says the Oregon Department of Corrections has inadequate plans to improve the treatment and conditions at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, the state’s only women’s prison.
In a Nov. 14 letter to Gov. Tina Kotek, the Oregon Justice Resource Center said the Oregon Department of Corrections’ response to address harsh conditions at Coffee Creek is “extremely disappointing.” In August, a state-commissioned report uncovered myriad problems at the Wilsonville prison, which has more than 800 female inmates. That report found a retaliatory environment that discourages staff and inmates from reporting wrongdoing, including sexual misconduct. The prison also has “a punitive, para-military atmosphere,” the report said.
After the report came out, Kotek ordered the corrections agency to make short-term changes to improve conditions while her advisory panel continues to work on long-term changes in secret meetings the media or public cannot attend. The agency’s planned changes include sports bras for women, more security cameras and better communication with prison administrators and inmates about planned improvements. The prison also plans more classes and group activities, including yoga, a music band, and Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
But the center, which advocates for incarcerated people across Oregon, says it’s not nearly enough – and points to the state’s own report to make its case.
“The immediate actions are not proportionate to the seriousness and the severity of the conditions at CCCF,” the letter said. “The initial recommended changes and the understated acknowledgement of problems at CCCF expressed in the letter are consistent with the lack of seriousness that we have observed of the state’s overall response.”
Kotek’s perspective unclear
It’s unclear whether Kotek is satisfied with her corrections agency’s plans to make improvements. Elisabeth Shepard, a spokeswoman for Kotek, declined to answer a question about whether the governor is satisfied with the agency’s response to her order. Shepard said only that the office is reviewing the center’s letter and the corrections agency’s letter about plans.
Specifically, the center urges the agency to end the use of solitary confinement, also called disciplinary segregation. The state’s own report, which the center cites, calls the segregation unit “one of the least dignified” places in the prison.
If solitary confinement continues, the center said the prison should eliminate the use of three phone booth-sized cages that hold inmates when staff are attempting to de-escalate situations. The center also says the prison needs to stop using a tether when moving incarcerated women around the segregation unit, saying they are already shackled and the tether is “gratuitous and dehumanizing.”
Separately, the center urged the prison to stop using military titles for staff and stop calling incarcerated women by their last names, yelling at them and “barking orders at them as if they are in the military.”
At this point, the center hasn’t received a response, said Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center.
“Our hope is still that the governor will look at that, review it and comment or reach back out to us or the department of corrections and ask them why these can’t be implemented,” Singh said in an interview.
When asked, Amber Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Corrections, would not say if the agency considers any of the center’s ideas workable.
“At this point in time, the Department of Corrections is working on the action items that were submitted to Governor Kotek,” Campbell said in an email, without elaborating.
The center also said the prison needs to allow inmates in segregation to call their family members to let them know. Disciplinary segregation usually prevents them from using the phone for 14 days, the letter said.The center said the prison’s disciplinary system needs to be revamped so inmates aren’t punished when they ask for updates and help with their requests, which can include medical care.
And the advocates said the prison needs to stop strip searching and double-shackling inmates who return from medical appointments outside the facility, as this discourages them from seeking medical care, and respond to suicidal tendencies by providing mentors and prompt medical attention instead of putting them in segregation.
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