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Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem houses a Behavioral Health Unit for inmates with the most severe mental illnesses.

(Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian)

Prisoners in the Oregon State Penitentiary unit reserved for inmates with the most severe mental illnesses spend months, sometimes years in small cells with no natural light or outdoor access and rarely get to speak with others, according to an investigation by Disability Rights Oregon.

Most are in their cells for 23 hours a day and few regularly shower or have a chance for recreation even though both are required under state Department of Corrections policies, the federally funded advocacy group found.

The investigation began last spring and relied on interviews with 19 inmates, an examination of 4,500 pages of medical, mental health and disciplinary records and video footage from the prison's Behavioral Health Unit. One video revealed an inmate being stunned with a Taser gun when he failed to wake up or get up to be placed in restraints for his required medication, according to the group.

Attorneys from the organization presented some of their findings to state lawmakers Tuesday, while urging all legislators to support SB 739 to change the conditions.

The bill, requested by Disability Rights Oregon and sponsored by state Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, would require the state to ensure inmates in the state prison's Behavioral Health Unit spend seven hours a day out of their cells.

Under the proposal, five hours would have to be set aside for structured "therapeutic activities,'' which could include a class, a chance to interact with other inmates or a walk outside, as well as two hours of unstructured time, allowing for a shower or recreation.

The bill also would prohibit solitary confinement and require a "cooling-off'' period before correction officers could use force against someone with a serious mental illness. During this period, a mental health practitioner would be required to try to obtain compliance from the inmate.

"We are not here to criticize the DOC, but to inform you of the results of our investigation and why we feel this bill will address the problems we discovered,'' Bob Joondeph, executive director of Disability Rights Oregon told the Senate Committee on Human Services and Early Childhood. The group's full investigative report will be presented to lawmakers within a month, he said.

State Department of Corrections officials cautioned that the proposed bill would require additional staff, space and significant funding.

The bill won't move forward this session, said committee chair Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis. But she urged supporters and those involved in the state prison system to continue to meet to address an issue that she called "critically important, but very complicated.'' She also urged Disability Rights Oregon to return to the Legislature when its final report is complete.

There are 14,500 inmates in Oregon. About 1,100 are classified as having severe mental illness, said Steve Robbins, the DOC's health services administrator. About 88 percent of the 1,100 live in the prison general population, while the remaining 12 percent, or 125, are in restricted housing in the Behavioral Health Unit because of a history of harming themselves or others, Robbins said.

Robbins reminded lawmakers that the unit is a prison.

"We're not a mental health treatment center, but medium- and maximum-security prisons trying to incorporate mental health into our programming,'' Robbins said.

Michael Gower, assistant director for the Oregon Department of Corrections, told lawmakers that despite limited resources, his department "is currently meeting its constitutional and legal mandates to provide necessary medical and mental health care to inmates with serious mental illness.''

He asked that the Legislature allow the department to work with community stakeholders to improve conditions, instead of adopting new state laws.

Gower, in written testimony, called his department's use of restrictive housing for these inmates "measured and appropriate.'' Oregon's DOC also recently was selected to be one of five states to participate in the Vera Institute of Justice's Safe Alternatives to Segregation initiative, he said.

According to Disability Rights Oregon's preliminary findings, officers now "readily respond'' to prisoners with mental illness who act out with "riot gear, Tasers, pepper spray and a restraint chair.''

The bill's proposed restrictions on use of force wouldn't prevent the use of force in the unit in emergency situations, according to attorneys from Disability Rights Oregon.

"It doesn't take away the ability to use force when necessary but injects a stop sign and a roadblock when necessary,'' said Disability Rights attorney Joel Greenberg.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon's legislative director Kimberly McCullough supported the bill. The ACLU strongly opposes solitary confinement, particularly for people suffering from mental illness, McCullough said. Since 2012, the ACLU of Oregon has received more than 30 complaints from Oregon inmates or their relatives regarding the use or abuse of solitary confinement in Oregon state prisons, according to McCullough's written testimony.

Mary Botkin of AFSCME Council 75, which represents some of Oregon's correctional officers, said the state never provided financing to allow the state to put in place recommendations from a 2004 governor's task force on improving prison conditions for inmates with mental illness.

"SB 739 would be a great idea if we had a specialized facility, but currently the DOC does not have the staffing, expertise, budget or capacity to meet the criteria outlined,'' Botkin argued in written testimony.

Among Disability Rights Oregon's other findings:

Inmates in the Behavioral Health Unit are "lined up in cages the size of a telephone booth'' for certain therapies one hour a week, agency attorney Sara Radcliffe said.

The inmates have one session a week with a mental health counselor.

If the inmates are good, they are allowed one hour a week of what's called "day room,'' which is sitting on a plastic chair outside a cell, Radcliffe said.

Former and current mental health staff complained that corrections staff impeded their access to clients -- sometimes simply by refusing to buzz them into the building.

There were instances documented where medications were administered under threat of stun gun use.

"What really stood out to all of us was the level of self-harm in the Behavioral Health Unit,'' Radcliffe said, citing examples of inmates swallowing dangerous items, cutting themselves or banging their heads. The response by correction officers often is to pepper spray an inmate, strip the person and place the inmate in a restraint chair, sometimes for long periods of time, Radcliffe reported.

The problems Disability Rights Oregon discovered are not unique to the state. The group modeled the proposed legislation after a recent federal consent decree issued for the state of Arizona, group officials said.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212; @maxoregonian