Open and shut: Deer Ridge a tale of two state prisons

The United States has the world’s highest incarceration rate. For every 100,000 residents, we have 500 prisoners.

But Oregon is headed the opposite direction, and that’s evident in the two parts of the Deer Ridge Correctional Institution, east of Madras – one open for 7 1/2 years, the other never having housed a single prisoner.

The medium-security facility, built to house 1,228 prisoners, has stood idle, as projected prison population increases have not come to pass.

So instead, they have empty cells and empty cafeterias. And at last estimate, it might not be needed until the 2019-2021 biennium — if then.

“When the facility was built, the projection of the prison population was that there would be a need for it, based on population numbers,” transition coordinator Marissa Wilson said Tuesday. “In the fall of 2007, it was projected that was not going to be needed.”

Those projections never came true. While the 774-bed minimum-security facility at Deer Ridge has been operating since 2007, the medium-security facility never opened.

“Just a different variety of factors,” Wilson said. “There’s been new sentencing laws, other ways to manage offender population without necessarily putting them into prison.”

Oregon’s prison population has stopped growing, and fewer prisoners mean less money the state has to spend.

“There’s been a considerable cost savings,” said Kurt Symons, director and parole and probation officer at Jefferson County Adult Community Corrections.

A lot of it has to do with the state’s Justice Reinvestment program, passed in 2013. It was designed to reduce sentences for some crimes and allow some low-risk inmates to leave prison a bit sooner than expected.

“There’s a lot of people concerned about people getting out of prison early. And the reality is they’d be getting out within 30 to 90 days anyway,” Symons said.

The money that is being saved is put into the community corrections programs at the county level. Jefferson County expects to get $160,000 this year.

“That’s a lot we can do with that money — potentially hire another probation officer,” Symons said.

Instead of having people stay in prison for longer periods, the idea is keep them from coming back.

“The people that are filling up our prisons, in my opinion, are people with addictions,” Symons said. “Sure, with criminal thinking and probably could use some time incarcerated, but they need some help,” Symons said.