Originally published on February 8, 2021 9:51 pm
The report from Disability Rights Oregon (DRO) was an investigation into the ten identified jail deaths that occurred in the state in 2020. As Oregon’s disability watchdog group, DRO has a unique authority to obtain confidential records related to disability.
The biggest finding in the report, according to author Liz Reetz, is that nine of the ten people they identified who died last year in Oregon jails had a disability. And while the overall jail population decreased significantly because of custody reductions during the COVID-19 pandemic, she says, the number of jail deaths was higher than in recent years.
Published February 19, 2021 at 10:03 AM PST Listen • 18:22
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In theory, people go to jail only to be held while they await trial. In practice, jail inmates can be held for long periods. And in fact, ten people died while in custody in Oregon jails in 2020.
Disability Rights Oregon recently released a report showing that nine of the ten people who died had a disability of some kind. The report details the contributing factors and makes recommendations to prevent people from dying in jail in the future.
Liz Reetz is a Stanford Public Interest Law Fellow with DRO s Mental Health Rights Project; she is the author of the report and our guest.
A holding cell inside the Jackson County jail.
A new report into deaths in Oregon jails shows most people who died in 2020 had a disability, such as a mental health need. Two of the ten deaths last year took place in Jackson and Klamath Counties.
The report from Disability Rights Oregon (DRO) was an investigation into the ten identified jail deaths that occurred in the state in 2020. As Oregon’s disability watchdog group, DRO has a unique authority to obtain confidential records related to disability.
The biggest finding in the report, according to author Liz Reetz, is that nine of the ten people they identified who died last year in Oregon jails had a disability. And while the overall jail population decreased significantly because of custody reductions during the COVID-19 pandemic, she says, the number of jail deaths was higher than in recent years.
SALEM — Most of the people who died in Oregon’s jails last year had a disability, according to a new report by Disability Rights Oregon released on Monday, Feb. 8.
Subpar medical care, lack of suicide precautions led to many of the 10 deaths in Oregon jails in 2020, report finds
Updated Feb 08, 2021;
Posted Feb 08, 2021
One of those who died was Jennifer McLaren, 26. She died from undiagnosed pneumonia at the Northern Oregon Corrections Facility, known as Norcor, in The Dalles in January 2020 after she was taken into custody on a probation violation for a drug possession conviction, the Disability Rights Oregon report said.
( Noelle Crombie/The Oregonian)Noelle Crombie/The Oregonian
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Though Oregon’s jail population fell last year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of deaths in jails across the state appear to have gone up, largely due to substandard medical or mental health care, improper restraint of an inmate and inadequate suicide precautions, according to a new study made public Monday.