Coffee Creek is failing to meet needs of incarcerated women, report finds

The Oregon Department of Corrections has been instructed by Gov. Tina Kotek to take immediate improvement actions following an assessment of the conditions for women and staff at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.

The state women's prison is based in Wilsonville and houses 870 inmates.

Kotek received the 229-page Gender Informed Practices Assessment on July 31, according to her staff. The Legislature ordered and funded the assessment in 2022.

Authored by individuals with the Women's Justice Institute and the Center for Effective Public Policy, the GIPA report found the needs of the women at Coffee Creek are chronically unmet and recommended the state stabilize staffing.

Women's needs 'eclipsed' by men's

The GIPA assessment began in December and included site visits between Jan. 30 and Feb. 3.

The group conducted 53 interviews with former residents, facility leaders and managers, department heads, staff and other stakeholders. There were 11 staff focus groups conducted with facility staff and providers, and 14 focus groups with incarcerated individuals. Dozens of policy and program documents were also reviewed, according to the report.

They received 575 completed surveys from incarcerated individuals, representing 61% of the population as of Jan. 30. That included 212 surveys with additional and optional comments.

All living units, the Special Housing Unit, intake, recreation, movement and other locations were observed through 40 observation visits, the report said.

With women representing 7.5% of the overall state prison population, their needs are "ultimately eclipsed" by those of the men's population in departmentwide budget and policy priorities, the report concluded.

Facility concerns

The report also found that because of its singular location in the state, the facility can be inaccessible to women and families living outside of the area.

Maintaining large facilities can be costly and more than 80% of women in the prison are mothers who will be returning to communities, making its design an additional barrier when it comes to facilitating family connection, reunification, reentry planning and preparation, the report determined.

Other concerns with the space at Coffee Creek included the lack of a dining room at medium-security, requiring residents to walk to a hallway and bring meals back to their living area, and phone and video call areas in halls or in the middle of day rooms, making them noisy and less private.

The SHU was also "one of the least dignified and trauma-informed spaces" at Coffee Creek, the report found. The Special Housing Unit houses the Intense Management Unit, the Behavioral Health Unit, Disciplinary Segregation, the Mental Health Unit, the Mental Health Infirmary and individuals on Security Hold.

The SHU was unclean, not maintained and overall lacking, the report said. There were shackles chained to the walls, closet-size cages, and restraint desks, making it a space where residents cannot achieve the stabilization it is meant to achieve.

The authors suggested installing frosted film in all cells if possible so a resident can have more privacy when showering and removing the floor-to-ceiling closet-size cages and shackles from the wall.

"The design of the facility is more suited to a higher-risk population rather than a high-need population that requires therapeutic spaces," the report said of Coffee Creek. "It is essential that CCCF take immediate steps to develop more human-centered, gender-responsive, trauma-informed and growth-fostering spaces in both its medium and minimum-security environments."

Need to address grievance process

The report also concluded that the grievance process at Coffee Creek needs immediate attention.

Corrections policy requires a 70-day response time for discrimination complaints and a 35-day response for complaints related to medical issues.

The percentage of accepted grievances that receive late responses was significantly higher at Coffee Creek than at men's facilities across Oregon, the GIPA report found. Late responses to residents' medical grievances at the facility were 37%, compared with 23% at men's facilities. Late responses to discrimination grievances were 55% at Coffee Creek, compared with 24% at men's facilities.

The data does not include grievances that were not accepted, another point highlighted in the report.

Residents reported questions surrounding due process, the decision-making process and their experiences with retaliation after submitting a grievance.

"We are shut down," one resident told investigators.

Chronic understaffing

There are staff dedicated to their jobs at the facility, the authors wrote, but there remains "chronically low staffing levels" impacting the implementation of recommended practices.

Coffee Creek had the third highest total vacancy rate among correctional officers in the state at nearly 17% as of Jan. 30. Its medical staff vacancy rate was the highest of all 12 prisons in Oregon.

And in current positions, only 31% of operations staff who have the most direct contact with incarcerated women are female.

The staffing model at CCCF also fails to be designed to meet women's unique needs, the report found.

Mental health staffing was lagging, the report said, especially to address the overrepresentation of reported suicide attempts at Coffee Creek. While women represent the smallest prison population in the state, Coffee Creek reported the highest number of sucicide attempts of any facility statewide at 29%. The prison also reported the second-highest number of self-harm incidents.

The issues identified by the assessment came as little surprise to Bobby Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, who released a statement following the GIPA report release. The advocacy group released its own report last month outlining problems at the facility. It outlined similar issues.

"Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) is failing to provide what people need and is squandering opportunities to address trauma, develop new skills and create a culture that is healing and empowering," Singh said in a statement. "Governor Kotek and the leadership of the ODOC must listen to what people incarcerated at CCCF are telling them and take immediate action to avoid prolonging the unnecessary and inhumane conditions those in custody endure and finally accept that ODOC is an agency in crisis requiring urgent attention and accountability.”

Kotek orders special panel

In response to the report, Kotek will assemble an advisory panel on Gender Responsive Practices in Corrections, she announced. Additionally, she has directed the Department of Corrections to determine within 60 days immediate actions it can take without additional resources.

Kotek called the report "sobering to read" and said she was resolved to confront the national and systemic shortcomings in meeting the needs of women who are incarcerated "head-on."

"It is incumbent on Oregon’s corrections system to ensure that the use of carceral settings yield the best possible public safety outcomes and set people up for successful re-entry," Kotek said in a statement. "I am eager to convene this panel, lean into the findings of the GIPA, see immediate steps from DOC to improve conditions, and help ensure corrections staff get the training and support they need to do their jobs as effectively as possible.”

The panel will be tasked with working alongside the DOC to develop a plan to implement the recommendations made within the report, including a determination of resources and the development of policy proposals. It will first meet Sept. 7, although it has not been announced who will serve on the panel.

“The Department of Corrections is actively working on next steps to attend to the recommendations in this report,” acting DOC Director Heidi Steward said in the statement. “Since CCCF’s opening in 2001, research into – and the understanding of – women’s unique needs have evolved, and we look forward to maturing our programs and services.”

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her atdlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on Twitter @DianneLugo.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Coffee Creek fails to meet needs of incarcerated women, report finds