By Noelle Crombie
oregonlive.com
SALEM, Ore. — Oregon’s prisons are “crumbling,” with a nearly $1 billion maintenance backlog that puts prisoners’ health and safety at risk, a new Secretary of State audit found.
The audit, released Wednesday, analyzed the Oregon Department of Corrections’ prisons, staffing shortages and IT systems, concluding the system is beset with crises that jeopardize prisoners’ well-being and undermine reform efforts.
The audit paints an especially grim picture of the overall physical condition of Oregon’s prisons, which house an estimated 12,000 people.
Auditors singled out the Oregon State Penitentiary, an 1860s-era behemoth in Salem , declaring it nearly “functionally obsolete” as preventative maintenance goes unattended. The audit concluded the state penitentiary poses “serious safety, health and accessibility risks” to prisoners.
It recommended corrections administrators move people out of prisons that “have reached the end of their useful lifespan,” including the state penitentiary. And it urged the agency to produce a report for the Legislature outlining the “risk to human life” if people continue to serve out their sentences there.
“While we understand that additional resources are needed for major capital projects, a lack of funds cannot be an excuse for failure to improve the health, safety, and outcomes for adults in custody,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement.
About 1,700 prisoners are housed at the state penitentiary, making it the second-largest prison in Oregon . Snake River Correctional Institution near the Idaho border is the largest, with an estimated population of 2,600.
Corrections officials have lobbied the Legislature for funding to replace the Salem prison, which houses the most severely mentally ill prisoners. They point to widespread environmental hazards and the high cost of upkeep. In the summer, temperatures inside prisoners’ cells soar into the triple digits.
“Prison staff told auditors that some individuals in custody throw personal items from their cells at the windows in an attempt to break them and improve air flow,” the audit notes.
Other prisons also lack air conditioning, according to the audit. Coffee Creek Correctional Facility , the state’s women’s prison, relies on “swamp coolers that are not well suited for Oregon’s climate.”
“The elderly, especially vulnerable to extreme temperatures, face the greatest danger in these conditions, with increased risk of experiencing heatstroke and cardiovascular strain,” the audit notes.
Some of the state’s prisons are poorly equipped for elderly prisoners and people with physical challenges, according to the audit. The state penitentiary features a single outdated elevator that doesn’t reach all floors, making it difficult for prisoners to access the law library and the chapel.
The state spends nearly $13 million a year on repairs to the prison; corrections officials estimate the cost to replace it could reach nearly $1 billion.
The audit also concluded the prison system relies on IT systems so antique that the agency struggles to find knowledgeable developers to work on them; one system uses a programming language that “hasn’t been taught in colleges for decades,” according to the audit.
The outdated technology systems make it difficult to collect and analyze basic data about recidivism and assess whether its policies are effective, the audit found. The agency still relies on paper for some of its record-keeping and has struggled to secure state funding to modernize, according to the audit. In the most recent biennium, officials sought funding for three IT-related initiatives; only one was fully funded, the audit states.
The agency’s “ability to maintain and upgrade the system has been diminishing, in part because the technicians who developed the system have retired,” the audit states. “The risk of a failure, or the inability of the agency to update the system to meet changing laws, policy, or business requirements, is increasing.”
Among its recommendations, the audit said corrections officials should implement a comprehensive employee well-being and retention strategy, improve data collection that tracks reform efforts and come up with a plan that simulates the consequences of a “catastrophic” IT systems failure.
Auditors also found the agency’s signature reform effort to foster a more humane prison environment has sputtered amid mandatory overtime demands and staff burnout. That program is intended to prioritize connection between corrections staff and prisoners, emphasize deescalation strategies, improve staff well-being and create a prison environment that mirrors life outside to prepare people for life after their release from prison.
The audit said the reform effort “remains in its early stages” nearly a decade after its introduction.
Staffing, too, remains a chronic problem for the department as hundreds of positions go unfilled. The audit highlighted staggering overtime figures — in June 2024 , security staff logged an estimated 25,000 hours of overtime, 94% of which were linked to three prisons:
Two Rivers Correctional Institution , Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution and Coffee Creek, the audit notes.
Administrators blamed the high vacancy rates on low pay and poor working conditions, as well as a lengthy hiring process that takes an average of 125 days. Nearly half of candidates drop out of the process, the audit states.
Corrections Director Michael Reese said in a letter to the Secretary of State that he appreciated the audit’s focus on the significant challenges facing the agency. He said the agency agrees with the recommendations and is committed to addressing the problems identified in the audit.
“These issues affect our ability to safely operate institutions, deliver effective services, and meet our mission,” Reese wrote.
How much does aging prison infrastructure affect your ability to do your job safely? Share an example from your facility.
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