Watchdog group questions Kotek’s commitment to women prisoners in Oregon, quits state panel

An organization focused on prisoner welfare withdrew Tuesday from a panel that advises the

Oregon Department of Corrections

on

reforming its women’s prison

, claiming the governor is “indifferent” to improving the

lives of women prisoners

.

Julia Yoshimoto, an attorney with the Oregon Justice Resource Center, called out the sluggish process to carry out a range of recommendations at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. About 900 women are incarcerated at the Wilsonville prison.

Yoshimoto sent the letter to Mia Ruston, the gender responsive policy analyst in Gov. Tina Kotek’s office.

“What we have experienced over the past two years makes clear to us that the Governor is not committed to urgent or long-lasting change at (Coffee Creek) and is satisfied with the mere public appearance that change may be coming sometime in the future,” Yoshimoto wrote. “We can no longer afford to use staff time and organizational resources to participate in this seemingly disingenuous process.”

The Oregon Justice Resource Center has long been sharply critical of the Department of Corrections for prison conditions and treatment of the people it houses.

Ruston did not immediately respond to a request for comment and neither did Kotek’s office or the Department of Corrections.

The corrections agency came under fire in 2023 after a highly critical independent report found women prisoners in Oregon face retaliation for complaining about sexual misconduct, pay excessive fees to call their children and are forced to wear ill-fitting bras and shoes because of paltry commissary offerings.

The report, ordered by the Legislature and done by two outside advocacy groups, the Women’s Justice Institute and the Center for Effective Public Policy, revealed the high toll of chronic and severe understaffing and perennial crises at Coffee Creek.

Kotek at the time urged an immediate response to the problems.

According to a Department of Corrections website, the state continues to address the recommendations. It says it has added staff to help field and respond to allegations of sexual assault or abuse, developed training on how to carry out those investigations and improved its clothing offerings so they are tailored to women’s bodies.

Yoshimoto told Ruston that a half-dozen staffers from her organization took part in the advisory panel and related work groups but ultimately found the process to be unproductive.

She wrote that corrections administrators “made inappropriate and hostile comments to our staff about our organization” and misrepresented the group’s work as “problematic or obstructive to reform.”

In an interview, Yoshimoto declined to elaborate.

Her letter says discussions about potential legislation to address the problems at Coffee Creek fizzled due to a lack of support from Kotek.

She noted that the Department of Corrections is only now beginning to contemplate policies to improve conditions at the prison.

Coffee Creek has been roiled by turmoil, including in its medical services division, which saw turnover among key providers over the past year.

Earlier this year, the agency announced it had tapped a new superintendent, Charlotte Thrasher, who is set to begin work later this month.

Thrasher started as a corrections officer and has worked in community corrections, prisons and at the Washington Department of Corrections headquarters before serving as superintendent of the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor.

— 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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