Gordon Friedman

Statesman Journal

After reviewing a trove of reports detailing Oregon correctional officer discipline from 2010 to 2015, a picture emerges of a prison system short on officer oversight and fraught with complacency.

The reports were released to the Statesman Journal after a months-long public records battle with the Oregon Department of Corrections, which operates 14 state prisons housing more than 14,600 inmates. After release, each misconduct report was examined line by line and assembled into a searchable online prison-discipline database.

People with intimate knowledge of the corrections system were interviewed to gain perspective on how correctional officers behave in state penal institutions. Some former agency staff contacted for interviews declined, citing fear of reprisals if they spoke out against the corrections department.

Among the incidents that came to light in the discipline reports were:

Security protocols neglected, resulting in unnoticed escape attempts and assaults between inmates,

Corrections officers watching pornography or sleeping while on duty,

Assaults and insubordination committed by correctional officers, punished with varying severity,

Racial slurs and homophobic comments directed at inmates by correctional officers, and

Sexual harassment of male and female corrections employees by other correctional officers.

Jeff Premo, superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary, said in an interview that, in his experience, most officers follow the rules.

"I think they take a lot of pride in the work that they do," he said.

While it may be that a minority of correctional officers create problems within the prisons, misconduct reports show that the few who disregard their duties or act with malice may jeopardize the safety of inmates, fellow officers and the public.

Data: Oregon prison employee misconduct records

How we got our prison misconduct data

Security breaches create safety problems



Officer discipline records — with officers' names redacted by the state — show that complacency and dereliction of duty among corrections officers have frequently caused security problems. Chief among the lapses noted in the records is failure to properly count inmates.

Counting inmates is the only way to make sure they're where they should be — and alive. Neglecting to regularly and accurately count the inmates has resulted in escapes, gang-related fights and unsafe situations for corrections officers.

"Bad things happen in prison no matter what you do," said Eldon Vail, the former Washington state prisons director. He added that failing to properly do head counts leads to an increase in the likelihood of inmate suicide.

Premo said inmate counts, which are also called tier checks, are among the most important things officers do at the prison.

Dan Russ, a corrections officer at the state penitentiary for more than 25 years and president of a local corrections labor union, said inmate counts are essential to prison security.

"You make sure everyone is alive and breathing," he said. "I'm not going to say some people don't take a short cut." He added, "It doesn’t happen often, but yeah it does happen."

In one example, inmates at Snake River — the state's largest prison — took advantage of complacent staff. In 2010, inmate Robert Emery broke out of his cell and crawled into a laundry cart. Emery left a lifelike papier-mâché dummy in his bunk. He stole tools from the prison, crawled through storm drains and attempted to scale a prison fence before giving up.

Nobody realized he was gone.

DOC records show that during tier checks, correctional officers were fooled by the dummy and twice marked Emery present. One employee responsible for the counts was fined.

DOC policy stipulates that officers are supposed to make inmates sit up in their bunks during several daily counts. That didn't happen on Emery's cell block.

"That's the complacency," said Jeff Hernandez, a correctional officer at the state penitentiary for more than 11 years. "That’s what we really try to fight against."

Premo agreed.

"Complacency is something that we combat all the time. And we do that by reinforcing staff to be vigilant, to be aware of their surroundings," he said.

Also in 2010, an officer at Snake River was fired after passing contraband to inmates, which resulted in an escape of two inmates and the stabbing of a third. He then lied to police and state investigators about his conduct during an inquiry. A records request for the incident's complete investigative file is pending.

One officer at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, who miscounted inmates four times and fell asleep on duty, received a written reprimand. Another at the same prison miscounted more than a dozen times and received a written reprimand.

Records show that several officers falsified their count logs and were punished with varying severity.

In other situations, corrections officers improperly opened cell doors, which allowed inmates to start fights, leading to use-of-force situations by guards. Sometimes, guards didn’t report the assaults or the inmate injuries. Other times, officers were reprimanded for leaving their prison keys lying about.

Report: Prison officers struggle with inmate counts

Computer access

Records show misuse of computers also has been a problem among state correctional officers.

Most officers have access to a computer while on duty. Officials say that's to let them check their state email addresses. But without adequate supervision, records show bored officers on long shifts have spent hours browsing pornographic websites or sending personal emails.

In 2011, a corrections officer at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution was reprimanded for being on the computer so often at work that it amounted to theft of state time.

"If the contents of employee's computer were made public," the discipline report read, "it would be an embarrassment to the department and could have much broader negative implications, potentially tarnishing the image of the department to the larger public."

In 2012, a state penitentiary employee was reprimanded for receiving more than 10,700 personal emails while at work during a six-month period. Some contained sexually explicit images.

Hernandez, the penitentiary correctional officer, said that when Colette Peters became the DOC director in 2012 she encouraged staff access to computers, but had porn sites blocked. (Betty Bernt, head spokeswoman for the DOC, denied multiple requests from the Statesman Journal to interview Peters — saying Peters' calendar is booked until August.)

Some officers found ways to circumvent blocks preventing access to porn sites. In 2013, a state penitentiary employee installed software on a prison computer that allowed him to view pornography undetected. Records show that employee lied during his misconduct investigation and was eventually punished with a fine.

Others browsed inappropriate websites on their cellphones or brought flash drives with sexual content on them into the prisons. Department rules say staff are not allowed to bring personal phones into the prisons.

In 2011, an officer at Deer Ridge Correctional Institution was cited for sending thousands of texts while at work, carrying out conversations with her friends for the entirety of her shift.

An Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution employee was written up in 2011 for allegedly viewing sites that were degrading to women and minorities, and for playing computer games while on watch. A state penitentiary guard was fired in 2013 after he was caught sending sexually explicit emails at work. That guard was also found having sex with a co-worker while in uniform and on duty.

Sleeping on duty

Other officers were reprimanded for sleeping or reading while on duty.

One was found by his sergeant asleep on a bathroom floor, covered in his coat and with a roll of toilet paper beneath his head as a pillow. At the time, the sleeping guard said, “Sorry Sarge, I was taking a little nap,” according to the 2010 discipline report. Another report noted an officer was found sleeping with feet up and mouth open.

In a 2013 incident, a corrections officer assigned to perimeter duty at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution crashed a state vehicle into a signpost after falling asleep at the wheel. That employee was written up for "poor judgment." Another was reprimanded for falling asleep while watching an inmate identified as a suicide risk.

Data: Oregon prison employee misconduct records

One officer was busy reading novels or talking on the phone while assigned to watch a death row inmate at a dentist appointment in 2013. That same year, an officer who was supposed to monitor an inmate while at a public health clinic fell asleep.

That employee was eventually demoted and reassigned after internal investigators found he sexually harassed and intimidated a female officer, who reportedly initially didn't report the incident for fear of retaliation. John Nees, director of human resources for the DOC, said sexual harassment is not cause to be fired automatically.

Records show that sleeping on duty was the cause of missing multiple tier checks.

Disrespect by staff

The discipline reports show disrespectful conduct between staff and inmates.

A 2013 report shows one corrections officer was reprimanded after loudly yelling to inmates, “Who’s the n***** m*****-f***** keeping me awake at night?” After being questioned by DOC investigators, the man said he “realized it was no joking matter,” according to testimony in the discipline report.

Still more employees were written up for using racist or homophobic language toward inmates.

Dan Vasquez, the former warden of California's notorious San Quentin State Prison, said using racially charged language toward inmates should be a fireable offense because it can start fights.

“To make racially disparaging remarks against inmates is a good way to get officers killed,” he said.

In a 2011 incident, an officer used the prison intercom to repeatedly say "Inmate Pickles, report to the officer's station." The comment came after an inmate was found to have passed a pickle to his cellmate after storing it in his rectum. The misconduct report says the officer's transmission caused the inmate to become upset and put the prison at risk by "potentially causing unrest."

In a written statement to disciplinary investigators, the inmate said he "gets harassed by inmates enough and does not need it by the guards." The officer was found to have been untruthful with investigators and was demoted. The inmate also filed suit over the incident.

Other employees were written up after doing special favors for inmates or passing contraband. Another was disciplined in 2012 after threatening an inmate by fashioning a rope into the shape of a noose, holding it up and sticking out his tongue to make it look like he was hanging.

Disrespect among guards

Other incidents detail foul play, insubordination or negligence among guards.

In one 2013 incident, a corrections officer pepper-sprayed a nurse working at the Two Rivers prison. He said in the discipline report that it was an accident, but failed to tell his supervisor about the incident and was placed on unpaid leave.

Other officers threatened each other with violence. Some situations were so heated that exchanges of threats devolved into shoving matches between employees, resulting in written reprimands.

Vasquez, the former San Quentin warden, said officers who fight should be fired.

“You’re a correctional peace officer. Inmates assault other people. You don’t assault your own staff,” he said.

One tough job

Anecdotes and research studies show that being a correctional officer is a stressful job.

"There’s always an inherent danger," Premo said. "Things can get ugly, but our staff are well trained."

An officer survey commissioned by the Corrections Department in 2013 shows that officers are stressed by the demands of remaining hypervigilant. The survey found many guards feel as if they're constantly in danger. About half of those surveyed gave responses indicating they may have depression; more than one-fifth indicated presence of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Another 2013 survey commissioned by the department found that officers face high risk for injuries, stress-induced sleep deprivation, cardiovascular disease, cancer and shortened life expectancy. The survey found that officers at maximum security facilities report more stress than those at minimum security prisons, along with more obesity and alcohol problems.

The median age of Oregon's correctional officers is 50, with an average length of service of 10.5 years. More than 87 percent of officers are white, 9.4 percent are Hispanic, and 1.6 percent are black. (The inmate population is 73 percent white, 12 percent Hispanic and 9 percent black.)

Russ and Hernandez, both longtime correctional officers at the state penitentiary, said during a joint interview that their job is demanding every day. Both have been hit in the face with feces thrown at them by inmates through barred cell doors. They've withstood harassment by inmates for years — treatment they said most couldn't tolerate and don't want to know about.

"You don’t want to hear about the (inmate) who got his head beat in on the edge of the cabinet," Hernandez said. "The guy you had to stand and look at for three hours because the medical examiner is busy."

"A blob of brains," Russ recalled, his voice trailing off.

At the penitentiary, Russ supervises the recreational yard with eight other correctional officers. On the yard, guards are unarmed and outnumbered 100 to one. He has to remain hypervigilant.

"They always say it’s 95 percent boredom and 5 percent 'Oh, shit,' " he said.

Hernandez added: "When we go home, if someone’s not dead it’s a successful day."

Hernandez said officers stick together because they know what it's like inside.

"We end up staying friends with each other, which gets us into the negativity and reinforces bad habits," he said.

Hernandez added that when officers do something egregious, they're reported. Russ agreed.

"Nobody wants a staff member like that with them. If you’re compromised in one area, you’re compromised in another,” Russ said.

Unknown misconduct

Prisoners are not likely to report misconduct because they’re afraid of retribution, said Denise Welch, who spent seven months in federal prison for embezzlement.

“You’re not going to find anybody who’s currently in prison who’s willing to talk about it,” said Welch, 61. “They’re more afraid of the retribution than they are of the conduct.”

When Oregon corrections officials were questioned about misconduct reporting, they declined to comment on the extent that incidents go unreported.

Premo said inmates seen actively reporting staff or other inmates "put their lives in harm's way," and said he works to keep those who do anonymous. Premo, who while walking through the penitentiary casually shakes hands with inmates — some of whom he's known for 35 years — added that he gets anonymous inmate complaints every week.

Welch says that when she was behind bars she saw an inmate being sexually abused by a corrections officer. She didn't report it because it's important to keep your head down in prison, she said.

"If you make noise you could end up in worse shape than you’re in,” she recalled.

Welch described prison as a "horrifically frightening" experience, but added that some workers are better than others. The good ones, she said, are invaluable. Welch spoke with particular fondness about a chaplain and one compassionate officer she met while in prison.

A work in progress

Nees, the DOC human resources director, said the department has identified some room for improvement, and is working to better all aspects of agency business. He said a computer system has been implemented to measure progress in improvement areas.

A department initiative called the Oregon Accountability Model is looking to improve the prisons and promote successful inmate reintegration following release. State documents detailing the program say "offender development and behavior-shaping are impossible when safety and security are compromised." The documents continue: "The nature of interactions and communications with inmates is a key to success."

After the escape attempts at Snake River went unnoticed in 2010, the department conducted an escapes audit. The seven-page report, which was heavily redacted for media release, shows that the prison was out of compliance with its own security procedures.

Recommendations for preventing escape were redacted. Upon questioning, department officials declined to say if any recommendations have been implemented, citing an exemption for providing security information under the state public records act.

Vasquez, the former warden, said the Oregon data shows potential problems with the state's corrections recruiting.

"It sounds like Oregon has a real problem with their hiring," he said. "Where are the supervisors?"

Indeed, some correctional officers are only periodically supervised during the day. During the graveyard shift at the penitentiary, a single guard watches a five-story cell block housing 560 inmates; four officers are assigned to each cell block during the day.

Nees refuted Vasquez's critique. He said potential officers are subjected to thorough vetting before earning their uniform. He said corrections officials recognize how vital supervision is to procedures like inmate counts.

"I think counts are important. The agency treats that task as important," Nees said. "So when there’s something that might impact or call into question that very important task, we address it.”

With misuse of computers, Premo said firewalls installed to prevent visiting inappropriate websites have had a positive effect.

"Do we have people who have viewed pornography? Yes we have. Have we addressed it? Yes we have, because that’s where your complacency comes into play," he said.

Premo added: "I don't frankly believe that staff misbehave or get involved in inappropriate activity because they’re bored. But complacency is an issue."

Managing misconduct

Premo said that management at the penitentiary tries to identify changes in an officer's behavior as a predictor of future complacency. By recognizing that an officer is consistently coming in late or forgetting some essential tasks, they can have an informal conversation with a supervisor to right the course, Premo said.

Not all rule-breaking is cause for formal discipline.

"Sometimes it’s redirecting behavior or some type of operational practice. Sometimes its verbally or in writing. But that is not discipline,” Premo said.

Conversations regularly occur between supervisors and rank-and-file officers to correct behavior, he said.

"Do I see things? I see things that I correct on the spot," Premo said. "I've found keys laying around, and those are things that might escalate a little higher to saying, 'OK we’re going to have a chat about this.' "

The DOC practices progressive discipline, generally at the discretion of the superintendent running each prison. Premo said there can be informal conversations with correctional officers or letters of instruction before formal discipline, which includes letters of reprimand, pay sanctions, suspension, demotions and termination of employment. Records obtained for this story by the Statesman Journal only included formal discipline reports.

Every situation is reviewed on a case-by-case basis with prison staff, Premo said. Representatives from organized labor, the DOC's Special Investigative Unit or even the state police can also participate.

The department operates under a policy dictating that most misconduct is considered "recoverable." As long as officers own up to their mistakes and tell the truth during discipline investigations, they can generally avoid substantive punishment. However, egregious first offenses can escalate to serious discipline, Premo said.

Officer misconduct in prisons is serious, but things could be much worse, said Vail, the former Washington prisons director.

"In terms of the overall culture and health of the system, these are the kinds of things that I would expect occur in every prison system," he said. Vail added that a pattern of physical or sexual assaults against inmates by correctional officers would be more worrisome.

He said regular training and consistent supervision can improve how officers behave. In Oregon, correctional officers receive annual training and additional training as necessary.

"You don’t want people to be so overbearing that they become oppressive," Vail said. "On the other hand, you don't want them to become so lax that they’re not paying attention."

Without a watchdog

The Department of Corrections usually employs an inspector general to investigate reports of inmate and officer misconduct. But in September 2015, Leonard Williamson, then the inspector general, told the agency he intended sue it and Colette Peters, the director, for damage to his professional reputation.

Williamson, who sought $3 million, was fired within a month. Department officials said he was let go for performance issues. Through his attorney, Williamson declined an on-the-record interview, citing the likelihood of pending litigation.

Michael Gower, assistant operations director, was appointed as interim inspector general.

"Each and every report of potential staff misconduct is thoroughly assessed so we can take the appropriate course of action..." Gower said via email.

The Department named Craig Prins as the new inspector general in February. Prins, a corrections research director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, starts April 15.

Premo said he was unaware if the department audits of misconduct reports, but said there are checks and balances in place within the DOC to ensure discipline is handled properly.

"We have probably the best training that we’ve ever had in the history of the department," he said. "There are so many checks and balances that keep this place secure that I sleep pretty good at night."

gfriedman2@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6653. Follow Gordon on Twitter @GordonRFriedman or like him on Facebook at Facebook.com/GordonRFriedman

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