104-Year-Old Youth Detention Facility In Salem Closes

By Chris Lehman (OPB)
Salem, Oregon Sept. 1, 2017 11:19 p.m.
The Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility opened in 1913.

The Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility opened in 1913.

Oregon Youth Authority

A 104-year-old youth detention facility in Salem closed on Friday.

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The Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility was a victim of its age. Officials with the Oregon Youth Authority decided in 2015 that it would be more cost-effective to move the youth incarcerated at Hillcrest about 25 miles up the road to the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn.

The Salem facility had "beautiful brick buildings," said Joe O'Leary, the interim director of OYA.

“(They were) like something you would maybe envision at a boarding school or a college dorm in some New England community,” he said, “or out of a Harry Potter novel maybe."

But the century-old structures had some glaring flaws.

"They were built at a time where differently abled individuals were not at the forefront of the design process. It's a really challenging physical environment to upgrade in a way that meets modern building codes and expectations," O’Leary said.

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In 2013, state lawmakers challenged the agency to find ways to save money. OYA officials came back in front of the Legislature in 2015 with a 10-year plan that included consolidating Hillcrest and MacLaren. The age of the buildings at Hillcrest, combined with the fact there was plenty of room at MacLaren to build additional residential units, ultimately led to Hillcrest ending up on the chopping block.

O'Leary said two years to prepare for the shutdown of Hillcrest stood in stark contrast to some budget decisions.

"You find yourself in a crisis and you need to save money, and you say, 'Oh my god, what are we going to do?' This process was a very planned process," he said.

The agency had one of those "Oh my god" moments when Oregon Gov. Kate Brown released her recommended budget last December. The budget axed funding for the North Coast Youth Correctional Facility in Warrenton, Oregon. During budget negotiations in the 2017 legislative session, it became clear North Coast would not survive.

"It was pretty obvious to us in this (budget) cycle that all public agencies were going to be in reduction mode," said O'Leary. "It was a painful decision and it was a more disruptive decision because we had less time to prepare."

New residential and intake buildings were constructed at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility as part of the consolidation of Hillcrest and MacLaren.

New residential and intake buildings were constructed at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility as part of the consolidation of Hillcrest and MacLaren.

Oregon Youth Authority

North Coast is scheduled to close Oct. 1, making it the second "close-custody" facility to close in the space of a month.

O'Leary said 45 Oregon Youth Authority employees will lose their jobs when the shutdown is complete. However, the agency isn't laying off any workers as a result of the Hillcrest closure. Many will work at MacLaren, where the Hillcrest youth were transferred. The agency does expect to ultimately reduce some positions there through attrition.

Driving the consolidation is a long-term reduction in the number of youth entering Oregon Youth Authority custody. Even with the closures, O'Leary said the agency has roughly 90 unused beds at any given time.

He said the agency's long-term forecasts don't show a significant uptick in the number of juveniles entering the OYA system.

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