Oregon teen held in dirty isolation cell for 32 days, lawsuit claims

A 17-year-old at Oregon’s largest locked

youth detention center

was held for 32 days in a dirty isolation cell that reeked of urine and feces, a tactic that the

Oregon Youth Authority

used as punishment for the teen’s conduct, a new federal lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland by the Oregon Justice Resource Center, accuses the state of using solitary confinement as part of a harmful and illegal behavioral management strategy.

“It appears to be arbitrary,” said Thaddeus Betz, an attorney handling the case. “The youth are not afforded any process to contest the reasons that are placed there or question in any way the duration of their placement.”

The Oregon Youth Authority declined to comment, citing pending litigation, but released a message from

Interim Director Jana McClellan

sent to staff, county juvenile departments and others, saying the agency has remodeled space to “align with best practices for such interventions” and made changes, including how long youths spend behind closed doors.

“With even more adjustments planned, we hope to sustain a space that maximizes safety while also developing critical emotional regulation skills,” she wrote.

The lawsuit deals only with the use of isolation among male youths in state custody and centers on the experience of one teen identified only by his initials, A.H.

The isolation unit moved to a different building on the grounds at

MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility

in Woodburn earlier this year; A.H. spent time in the older unit, according to the lawsuit.

The suit alleges that the teen was first placed in isolation at MacLaren beginning in December 2023 for his role in an alleged assault. The teen denied involvement, the lawsuit says.

The criminal offense that led to the teen’s placement with the youth authority is not included in the lawsuit.

He submitted a grievance over his placement in isolation, but the youth authority did not respond, according to the lawsuit. Another youth who was also sent to isolation for his involvement in the same incident also filed a grievance; the agency did not respond for a year, the lawsuit states.

A.H. spent the majority of his day alone in a room, according to the lawsuit. His schooling and an unspecified treatment program were interrupted, the lawsuit states.

It alleges youths who are placed in isolation “are not provided anything except for chalk to write on the walls and one or two books.”

A.H. also was not allowed to make “routine phone calls” to family or have contact with other youths held at MacLaren and wasn’t routinely given a chance to leave his cell for recreation, the lawsuit states.

The stark and unsanitary conditions and the uncertainty surrounding how long he would remain in solitary confinement led to the deterioration of his “mental health and emotional well-being,” the suit says.

According to the lawsuit, the youth was discipline-free during the time he was in solitary.

He was sent back to solitary a second time after he walked into an area against the direction of an employee and made physical contact with an employee as he pushed past her, the lawsuit states. He spent three days in isolation the second time.

A.H. is now 18 and was released from custody last month, said Betz, who works at the Oregon Justice Resource Center as director of its youth justice project. The nonprofit advocates for the rights of incarcerated people and improved prison conditions.

Oregon law prohibits the youth authority from using isolation as punishment and instead should only address “imminent violence,” the lawsuit says, with the youths remaining isolated until they regain control of their emotional state. It generally isn’t supposed to exceed five days, the lawsuit states.

The suit names top youth authority administrators as defendants and alleges the youth’s civil rights were violated when the agency’s leaders failed to “investigate reports of abuse of isolation, failed to properly train staff on the lawful use of isolation, and failed to institute or properly implement policies that would protect youth from misuse of isolation from staff.”

— 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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