Sit Down at SRCI Tests Emergency Plans
 
A protest by 94 inmates at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario gave the department a rare chance to test its emergency preparedness plans on June 11, 1998. Every institution and most units within the department participate in "table top" or "full blown" exercises regularly, but, "There is nothing like the real thing to gauge how well our ´best laid plans´ will work under pressure," observed Director Dave Cook.
 
As soon as the SRCI inmates refused to leave the recreation yard, SRCI staff activated the emergency plan. The first step, "Implement Tactical System," is designed to handle the situation quickly. It calls for officers to a) locate and verify; b) isolate; and c) evacuate (if necessary). Sometimes these three actions are all that is needed and staff can proceed to d) resolve and e) deactivate.
In more complex emergencies additional actions are needed including: a) establish a command center; b) notify central office; c) obtain specialists for emergency; d) develop command structure.
 
In Salem, an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) may be set up at the discretion of the director. The EOC provides support, direction and assistance to the institutions and provides a vital communications link with other agencies, the governor, the legislature and the media.
 
The plan is effective with any type of emergency including (besides the obvious inmate disturbances), natural disasters and high profile events. Recent examples of the use of the emergency plan include the flood (and evacuation of Oregon Women´s Correctional Center) of 1996 and the executions in 1996 and 1997.
 
Superintendent Search Down to the Wire
 
The department is in the process of filling a number of vacant superintendent positions. Promotions and transfers opened up Snake River Correctional Institution, Oregon State Penitentiary, and Oregon State Correctional Institution. The new prison in Umatilla is ready for its leader, to be followed at a future date for the Wilsonville facility. Even more vacancies will be created if any current superintendents change institutions.
 
In mid-June, 28 candidates were grilled by five members of the Executive Management Team. These semi-finalists represented an even split of internal and outside Oregon candidates.
 
The field was narrowed to twelve ­ seven internal and five outside professionals. The finalists will be invited back in early July for institution tours and another round of interviews. Selections are expected to be announced shortly thereafter.
 
Site Review Processes Proceed
 
While prison construction progresses at Snake River and Umatilla, forward movement is occurring on the additional prison sites as well.
 
Oakridge was dropped as a location for a future minimum security work camp due to environmental and flooding issues with the site. To take its place, the minimum security portion of the minimum/medium site in Junction City (also in Lane County) was expanded to 400 beds and moved forward on the calendar.
The report on the review of an alternate location for the women´s prison and intake center in Wilsonville should be wrapped up and in the governor´s hands as you read this. At the urging of legislative leadership and the City of Wilsonville, Governor Kitzhaber directed the department to take a more extensive look at the suitability of a piece of land proposed by the city as an alternative to the already approved Dammasch State Hospital site.
The review includes:
 
1. Property studies (surveys, soils testing, geo-technical analyses, seismic evaluation, environmental assessments including detection of any hazardous waste, wildlife habitat evaluation, inventory of wetlands, cultural resources such as historical artifacts, property appraisals, etc.).
 
2. Property review (title records, permission to study the land and its characteristics, interest in selling, etc.)
 
3. Infrastructure issues (transportation, water, sewer, power, storm drainage, etc.)
 
4. Public education / public input (disseminating information and seeking feedback on the proposed site via meetings, open houses, public forums, etc.)
 
5. Legal issues related to what would need to be done, should it eventually be decided to decided that the alternative site is preferable.
 
Roaming Rental Beds
 
The department´s contract with Corrections Corporation of America for rental beds in Florence, Arizona will be terminated at the end of June. Most of the 77 women housed in Florence will be moved to a Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) prison in Gallup, New Mexico. Up to 120 women may be housed there over the next few months to take additional population pressure off of Oregon Women´s Correctional Center and Columbia River Correctional Institution. Both institutions have had inmates on cots over the last month or so.
The male inmate population is also climbing, and almost every institution is at its legislatively approved capacity. Plans are being made to rent beds for males in a CSC facility in Santa Fe, New Mexico, beginning in August.
 
ADA and Oregon Prisons
 
The US Supreme Court´s ruling Monday, June 15, in a Pennsylvania case that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to prisons and prisoners came as no surprise to the Oregon Department of Corrections. A series of Ninth Circuit Court rulings over the last few years indicated that the court´s interpretation of the ADA included reasonable accommodation for inmates.
The department is clearly ahead of many other states in complying with the law. And we believe we are doing a pretty good job.
 
About three percent of the Oregon inmate population can be described as having a physical disability such as deafness, blindness, or ambulatory problems. Reasonable efforts are made to accommodate individual needs on a case by case basis. For instance, the department has taken action when necessary to provide sign language interpreters during disciplinary or administrative rules hearings. At Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, an entire unit is devoted to inmates with special medical needs. The department has lowered sinks to be wheelchair accessible, installed special toilets and showers with seats and nozzles, added hospital beds, improved access with lifts and ramps, provided a TTY telephone, lowered the regular wall phones so wheelchair-bound inmates can reach them, set aside dedicated recreation time and modified some equipment for inmates who are physically challenged and even, during field events, designed special contests for the disabled.
 
All new DOC construction will facilitate accommodation as defined by the ADA.
 
May Factoids
 
o Inmates constructed 19,000 gypsy moth traps and 400 fruit moth traps for the Department of Agriculture (ODOA). This is the fifth year Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP) has worked with ODOA.
 
o OWCC transports women to other prisons for work: one works at the Oregon State Correctional Institution´s (OSCI) Engineering Support Unit, two at OSCI´s wood finishing vocational program, two at OSP´s metal shop and ten go to OSP daily to assemble bar code scanners for private partner PSC.
 
o EOCI administered 51 GED exams with a 98 percent pass rate.
 
o Forty-eight inmates working 3,658 hours produced 1,830 pairs of jeans, 1,920 shirts and 300 jackets last month in the EOCI garment factory.
 
o OCIC received 395 males and OWCC received 41 females.
 
o Three "Gold Hat" inmates from the Summit Program were escorted to Marshfield High School to address five consecutive classes regarding their personal stories, experiences and future plans.
 
Cow Chow
 
Since March 1 a Polk County dairy herd has been the major beneficiary of 45 tons of food preparation wastes from five Salem prisons. The department began recycling non-protein food at a rate of about 1,000 lbs. per day as part of a pilot project that also involves Salem-Keizer schools and Fred Meyer stores.
Besides being good for the environment and getting some beneficial use from what was formerly waste, it is cheaper to make the food scraps into cattle feed than to dispose of them. And, as the program flyer proclaims, "Cows need their vegetables too!"
 
In the first three months of the program the 1,000 lbs. each day translates to about 90,000 lbs of DOC-generated waste diverted from the landfill to the dairy. At $88/ton, the landfill cost of disposal would have been $3,960. At $67.15/ton, the Rickreall dairy disposal cost was $3,022. That´s close to a 24% reduction over what it would have been for the same three-month period.
DOC´s Richard Ladeby is a natural at promoting the program. Experienced as a food service manager at a number of department institutions, and currently acting food service manager for the penitentiary, Ladeby also serves as the department´s recycling coordinator. For more information on the program, he can be reached at 503/378-7038.
 
Private Partnerships Update
 
o Under a partnership with Trussbilt, Inc. inmates produce doors and window frames for correctional facilities. As of January, all of the doors and window frames for the minimum security facility at Two Rivers Correctional Facility in Umatilla had been shipped.
 
o Ground was broken on the Salem farm property for construction of a 12,000-square-foot building for Inmate Work Program´s partnership with PanTec, Inc. When completed in late summer, up to 40 inmates will make prefabricated concrete panels for the construction industry.
 
o Mill Creek laundry at Oregon State Penitentiary landed a new customer from Eugene. Beginning in October, the laundry will provide services to PeaceHealth, Inc., a private non-profit corporation that, among other things, operates Sacred Heart Hospital. The contract will provide work for 25 additional inmates.
 
o The Prison Industries Board approved a proposal to allow the department to grow and sell more crops at its Mill Creek farm property. The farm will sell to both the private and public sectors under contract or on the open market.
 
o The farm will add ornamental plants and nursery products to the list of crops it grows and sells. Retail sales are a possibility.
 
Pop Quiz from TRCI
Background: Oregon´s new prisons include separate medium and minimum custody housing units. In the new prison design, one central kitchen in the medium custody area of the institution prepares meals for all inmates.
At Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, the minimum custody facility will begin operation in September, 1998. How will these inmates be fed if the kitchen in the medium institution is not scheduled to be completed until November 1999?
 
Possible Answers:
A) Local fast food restaurants
B) Build a mobile kitchen
C) Army C-Rations
D) Truck meals in from Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton
Answer: If you answered "all of the above" you would be close because they were all considered at one time or another. B and D are the most likely solutions to the dilemma.
 
Designs are being reviewed for the construction of a mobile kitchen similar to those used by the armed forces and the Forest Service. The kitchen is essentially a 40-foot truck trailer with the equipment built in to prepare 150 meals at a time.
 
Building one of these trailers takes 3 to 4 months. If we don´t receive it in time, our back up plan is answer D - truck meals in from EOCI, or use a "loaner." mobile kitchen.
 
Trucking meals in would be modeled after the armed forces field feeding operations. Special heat retaining containers will be used to meet health standards during the 45-minute trip from Pendleton to Umatilla.
 
The mobile kitchen will be in service for a long time; it will be moved to the next DOC construction project when its services are no longer needed at TRCI.