Oregon officials propose Madras prison shuffle
With already overcrowded prisons and an expected inmate surge, the Oregon Department of Corrections is proposing to reshuffle inmates at the Deer Ridge Correctional Institution.
The facility, which opened in 2007, features both medium- and minimum-security facilities. But the medium-security building never opened, as the expected prison population need failed to materialize.
Now the DOC wants a swap:, proposing to move inmates to the medium-security area and shut down the minimum-security facility. The plan comes as the prison is nearly 20 percent over capacity. The facility was built to accommodate 657 inmates — right now there are 787 prisoners.
The medium-security facility can house about 1,200 inmates.
“It would help us, as an institution, start moving away from those 130 emergency beds,” Deer Ridge Superintendent Tim Causey said Thursday.
A recent state prison population forecast predicts a need for at least 200 additional beds in the coming year.
The agency will need more money from the state to make the switch. According to Causey, it will cost about $2.5 million to shift the inmates to the new location. That price includes updating security, finishing furnishing the building and replacing what has been removed from the mothballed facility.
“As other institutions had a need for equipment and supplies and different things that we had on hand here — we weren’t using them, so we would send them to those other institutions,” Causey said.
The department also wants another $7 million to house more inmates at Deer Ridge. That will pay for new staff and additional medical and food services.
“Our capacity in the medium-(security facility) allows us to grow up to 400 more beds than what we have in the minimum,” Causey said.
The DOC plans on submitting the proposal to Gov. Kate Brown in the near future, and will participate in a meeting with all Oregon counties on the issue next week.
Causey said one option to raise the money would come at the cost of cutting state funds directed to county court programs.
House Bill 3194 modifies sentencing for certain offenders convicted for drug, theft and robbery crimes –essentially keeping them out of the prison system and instead placing them in local programs or jails.
The original Deer Ridge project cost about $190 million, officials said, including construction, studies, design, property and easement purchases, and infrastructure improvements for public services.
There are 14 state prisons in Oregon, most of which Causey says are overcrowded. The department believes Deer Ridge is the best solution to the problem.
“We’re the institution that has the capacity to grow,” Causey said. “Most of the others don’t.”
In its proposal, the DOC said keeping both the minimum-security facility open and simultaneously opening the medium-security buildings would cost an estimated $42 million.
Causey said if they do move the prisoners, the intended medium-security prison building would open to operate as a minimum-security facility.
