Oregon State Penitentiary - Criticism and Legal Actions

Criticism and Legal Actions

Prisoners and advocates have charged the OSP system with racism, saying that the system discriminates against Black inmates—both by placing them in worse conditions and by failing to protect them from racially motivated violence. They cite the case of Pete Wilson, a Black prisoner who was stabbed by ten white inmates while white guards looked on. Black inmates also charged the OSP library with showing racial bias in access and employment. One Black inmate described their opinion on the causes and effects of this bias:

Black and other minorities at OSP have an acute problem with the librarian when it comes to their gaining access to courts. First we recognize racism is an ingrained traditional attitude. And second, prisons are reflections of those views. Therefore, Blacks and others in their own wherewithal struggle towards the path of freedom through redress in our courts. But quite often the librarian tries to preclude these efforts in many different ways. Such as telling prisoners his notary seal is broken and of course this tactic will go on for two or three weeks until one of the counselors puts a stop to it, being that if the librarian doesn't notarize documents they will have to do his job.

Prisoners have accused OSP guards of homophobia, censoring homosexual materials in the men's prison and contact among inmates in the women's prison (closed in 2010). In 1982, prisoners filed a class-action lawsuit against the prison, charging that their rights to receive mail were being violated. In particular, they charged prison officials with censoring the mail by withholding "not approved" material, including material related to homosexuality. District Judge Owen Panner decided for the prisoners and the ACLU, ruling that blacklisting certain publications and materials (including those related to homosexuality) violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the prisoners. However, some advocates believed that the legal ruling would have little effect. Carole Pope, a former prisoner at OSP, said: "We've had five major law suits. After each one, there was a token change, then it went back to the way it was. They don't take any of this seriously."

In 1977, three inmates (two current and one former) filed a lawsuit alleging that they had been harmed by medical experiments using drugs and radiation. The experiments were voluntary and affected 67 prisoners, who were paid $125 each.