Families, activists and attorneys for inmates in Oregon’s prisons called Tuesday for the Department of Corrections to immediately release at least half of the state’s prison population, saying more public health crises are imminent if it doesn’t.
Prisoners have faced a host of unlivable conditions related to both the COVID-19 pandemic and evacuations due to the recent wildfires, they said.
They have been calling for inmates to be released since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak but on Tuesday released a list of specific demands. In addition to a mass release, they said the state must improve conditions for those who remain, provide education and invest in culturally competent programs that focus on community and helping inmates re-enter society.
“Prisons do not keep us safe,” said Rose Harriot, the partner of an inmate at Pendleton’s Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. “We need to divest from the institutions that have failed us and invest in ones that have shown the potential to be successful.”
The Corrections Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Saturday, department spokeswoman Jennifer Black acknowledged delays in getting inmates meals, as well as a lack of phones for the male inmates at the Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras, where more than 1,300 inmates have been transferred because of the fires. Inmates staged a demonstration there Friday night and Saturday morning to protest unsafe conditions.
“During an emergency, operations do not run as smoothly as normal,” Black said then. She said a crisis team arrived and the protests ended without any use of force.
Black said inmates had access to food and medications, but “not on their normal schedule.” She said the department was figuring out a solution to the smoky conditions at Deer Ridge and working on setting up phones in the building so male inmates could make calls.
Other families and activists reported that since the pandemic started, inmates have staged hunger strikes to protest conditions at prisons and jails around the state, including the Pendleton prison, Lane County Corrections Division and the Multnomah County Detention Center.
Juan Chavez, an attorney with the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said the state knew it wasn’t equipped to handle a pandemic, but still didn’t enforce COVID-19 precautions such as wearing masks and releasing inmates to ensure social distancing.
“This pandemic highlights the public health crisis that is mass incarceration,” he said. “Prisons are the epitome of a congregated environment — a landlocked cruise ship that can’t come to port.”
He said the prison system is unsustainable, and a failure to drastically reduce the prison population will only lead to more health crises — whether related to more wildfires or more illness outbreaks.
“We know with global warming and climate change, we’re going to be put into a position where people living in prisons will be faced with forest fires,” Chavez said. “Given that they’re stacked on top of each other and in unsafe, unsanitary conditions, that’s going to be a cascading problem — the spread of COVID.”
Oregon Governor Kate Brown has commuted the sentences of 57 people due to the pandemic. In late August she said she would consider releasing 350 to 400 more who were within two months of their release date, as well as a few considered to be medically vulnerable. She asked the Department of Corrections to give her the names of eligible inmates by Friday.
Inmates and their families have reported a lack of compliance with social distancing and mask requirements and lack of hygiene supplies since the pandemic started.
Others reported their loved ones being forced to work despite being sick, thereby exposing other inmates to potential illness.
Tanja Lupoli, the wife of an inmate at the Pendleton prison, said her husband has a host of health issues and was on the list for early release when the pandemic began. But she said that when he filed a habeas corpus petition, he was unfairly denied release.
Others said their family members have told them that overcrowded conditions at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem -- the evacuation site for three other prisons threatened by wildfires -- has not only increased COVID risks, but has led to fights between inmates.
Still others reported not receiving meals or medications on time or inability to access phones to call their families. And many said the smoke inside prison buildings is even worse than in the prisons they evacuated.
“Everyone is sick, has sore throats, is coughing constantly, their eyes are burning,” said Erica Gibson-Pitts, whose son is at Oregon State Penitentiary. “There’s no relief.”
—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR
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