What we found
DOC’s nearly $861 million maintenance backlog puts incarcerated adults at risk.
(see Chapter 1, pg. 9)
Nationally, many incarcerated individuals face serious health and social challenges that can worsen in custody, especially among the aging population, who cost two to three times more to care for. Many of DOC’s outdated facilities are poorly lit, ventilated, and maintained, creating unsafe conditions and failing to meet standards for accessibility and basic living conditions. Deferred maintenance funding needs have surged from $568.5 million in 2020 to almost $861 million a few years later, not including necessary seismic upgrades, far outpacing available funding and continuing to grow. The Oregon State Penitentiary is projected to become functionally obsolete in the near future, as the century-old, fully occupied facility relies on critical repairs instead of preventative maintenance, no longer suitable for modern correctional standards, and continues to pose serious safety, health, and accessibility risks to adults in custody. During the 2025-27 legislative session, DOC received $3 million of its $5 million request for phase I of a project for replacing the Oregon State Penitentiary and building a centralized geriatric medical facility.
Reform shows promise but is undermined by mandatory overtime and staff burnout.
(see Chapter 2, pg. 16)
Led by DOC, the Oregon Way initiative aims to create a more normalized correctional environment and culture that improves outcomes for incarcerated individuals. Although still in its early stages, qualitative evidence suggests reduced volatility and better staff well-being. For example, the Oregon State Penitentiary Resource Team has had success transitioning adults out of the Mental Health and Behavioral Health units into general housing. However, staffing shortages, IT system limitations, and other implementation challenges have constrained the collection of quantitative data, making it more difficult to demonstrate impact, secure funding, and sustain the initiative long term.
DOC’s ability to meet its mission is limited by obsolete IT systems.
(see Chapter 3, pg. 21)
DOC IT systems support operations around the clock across Oregon including the 36-county parole and probation offices. The agency faces substantial challenges in modernizing these systems: inefficient and paper-based processes, antiquated legacy interfaces that users find cumbersome and unintuitive, and outdated programming languages that limit DOC’s ability to maintain or update the systems. Years of insufficient updates have created a gap between operational needs and system capabilities, placing the agency at extreme risk of being unable to implement critical enhancements or recover effectively from system failures. Impacts on the lives and safety of adults in custody and correctional staff are thought to be severe if these systems were to fail.