Prison

Oregon’s federal public defender reports government attorneys confirmed the strike on Monday, while Bureau of Prison spokesperson says those in custody are now “accepting their meals.”

Colette Peters, who runs Oregon’s prison system, has emerged as the leading contender to run the federal prison system.

Federal prisoners said to be the most dangerous are sent to a special unit at an Illinois penitentiary. NPR and The Marshall Project have uncovered violence, abuse and a string of inmate deaths there.

Ruben Benavidez has been sued at least six times for allegations of physical assault and sexual harassment. While working as a correctional officer at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, Benavidez coerced inmates into sexual acts that he would record on his cellphone, a lawsuit filed in federal court alleges.

A group of adults in custody who contracted COVID-19 first sued the state in April 2020, This spring a federal magistrate deemed the lawsuit a class action. Oregon appealed the class certification to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On Thursday, a three-judge panel rejected Oregon's arguments, allowing the case to move forward.

In what some advocates say is a groundbreaking ruling, a federal judge has certified a class-action lawsuit in Oregon over state leaders’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic inside its prisons.

A federal judge is warning prison staff at Oregon’s Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla to not retaliate against an adult in their custody who sued corrections officials because they wouldn’t follow masking rules.

Gov. Kate Brown has commuted the sentences of 963 who were serving sentences during the COVID-19 pandemic. A preliminary report by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission that looked at the first 266 people released early found they were not more likely to reoffend.

Tony Daniel Klein, 37, faces federal charges for allegations that took place in 2016 and 2017 while he worked as a nurse for the Oregon Department of Corrections. In 2018, Legacy Health hired Klein. At the time, Oregon State Police were working on an open investigation into Klein regarding allegations of sexual assault.

In Oregon’s men’s prisons there are a few educational opportunities available. But for those incarcerated at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, there were no college classes offered until 2019. That’s when Portland State University associate professor Deb Arthur worked with the Department of Corrections to bring classes to the state’s only women’s prison.