Oregon prison guards exchanged racist, antisemetic texts, memes on group text, records show

The Oregon Department of Corrections

has moved to fire three corrections officers at the

state’s largest prison

who sent a flurry of racist, antisemitic, homophobic and sexist texts about their co-workers and prisoners on a group text made up of the

prison’s tactical team

, records show.

The Snake River Correctional Institution employees, Thomas White and brothers Steven and Samuel Main, were placed on paid leave in December 2023 and continue to be paid.

They serve on the prison’s tactical team, which extracts prisoners from their cells and responds to serious security incidents inside the prison.

According to Oregon Department of Justice records obtained Friday by The Oregonian/OregonLive, the text messages included “bias related speech, videos, and photos,” and included “videos of prisoners within the facility to hate speech being used at off duty staff gatherings.”

Corrections Inspector General Gary Ninman reported the conduct to the Department of Justice, the records show.

Corrections officials learned about the group text from a corrections officer, Fernando Rangel, who was himself the subject of a criminal investigation related to his conduct at the prison, according to records.

The records show that Rangel provided a corrections investigator “screen shots on his personal cell phone” of “racist and homophobic content” among Snake River employees.

The Justice Department records show multiple corrections employees declined to cooperate with the criminal investigation, including one who cited the risk of retaliation.

The Department of Corrections released its “pre-dismissal letters” for the men on Friday in response to a public records request from The Oregonian/OregonLive. The letters describe crude and demeaning texts among the three, who referred to new hires in sexual terms and used racist and antisemitic language, images and memes.

In his letter to Steven Main, Snake River Superintendent Joe Woodland cited a text Main sent to the group of corrections officers that included “a photograph of a naked man crouching over George Floyd, who is shown lying on the pavement with his head held down on the pavement.” The image shows a photograph of Steven Main’s face superimposed on the naked man, Woodland said.

Corrections Director Michael Reese issued a statement Friday saying agency leadership requested a state criminal investigation after learning about the group text messages.

He called the employees’ actions “reprehensible” and said they constitute an “abuse of power, exploitation of adult in custody images, and discriminatory behavior rooted in homophobia, misogyny, and racism.”

“It violates our core values and erodes the trust placed in us by the public, our staff, and those in our care,” he said. “Trust is not optional — it is fundamental to our mission.”

Last month, corrections leaders scheduled meetings to discuss termination and then rescheduled them for later in June at the employees’ request; the men then each took three months of “protected leave” and did not attend the meeting, an agency spokesperson said. The leave can include family or medical leave.

Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario houses about 2,700 prisoners.

The employees continue to receive salaries. Steven Main is paid $91,740; Thomas White is paid $101,616; and Samuel Main is paid $89,184.

This story will be updated.

— Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184 or ncrombie@oregonian.com.

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