Oregon State Penitentiary - History

History

Prior to the construction of prisons in Oregon, many people convicted of crimes were either hanged or pardoned. Oregon State Penitentiary was originally built in Portland in 1851. Operating this facility proved difficult because it spanned two blocks, with a city street running through the middle. In 1859, the facility was leased to private contractors (Robert Newell and L. N. English), who instituted a system of prison labor. This new system led to many escapes. In 1866 the state officially moved the penitentiary to a 26-acre (110,000 m2) site in Salem, enclosed by a reinforced concrete wall averaging 14 feet (4.3 m) in height. The prison also began using a device called the "Gardner shackle" (later called the "Oregon Boot"), a heavy metal device attached to prisoners' legs to impede movement.

Escapes continued at the new facility, despite the wall and the Boot. The most famous of these occurred in 1902, when Harry Tracy and David Merrill killed three guards with a gun. Details about this period can be read in Thirteen Years in Oregon State Penitentiary, a book written by Joseph "Bunko" Kelly. Kelly describes scenes of extreme brutality, particularly floggings, which he recounts happening to whites, Blacks, Indians, and a Chinese "half boy and half woman". He describes negligent doctors and a lack of mental health care, and complains that whiskey drinking affects the behavior of the guards. He also identifies a five-year period in which the warden stopped newspaper deliveries to prevent convicts from learning of pardons. The prison announced in 1904 that it would end the use of flogging, and instead punish prisoners by spraying them with cold water from a garden hose.

The prison experimented briefly in 1917–1918 with an "honor system" in which 130 prisoners were paroled with certain conditions. The prisoners were released into jobs outside the prison during the daytime. After 66 of these absconded, Governor James Withycombe announced that he would find a way for them to work jobs within the prison facility.

In the 1920s, the Penitentiary created a flax plant which employed more than half of its inmates. Inmates worked on construction and in the fields, and were paid $0.50–$1.00 per day. The plant was touted nationally as a way to the prison financially self-sustaining, and to rehabilitate prisoners by giving them something to do and preparing them to work. In 1925, OSP had the largest flax scutching mill in the world, with 175 workers producing 100–150 tons of flax per day.

With assistance from the federal Bureau of Education, OSP ran a unique and successful adult education program during the same era. With Prohibition in effect, 80 of the prison's 575 inmates at this time were moonshiners. Nine prisoners were shot in a 1926 riot beginning in the prison cafeteria.

Seven hundred inmates were involved in a riot on August 1, 1936, in response to a court ruling that made it more difficult for prisoners to be released after serving their minimum sentence. The riot was put down by armed guards; one prisoner, Thomas Baughn, was killed and two were wounded. After being deprived of their weapons (and of food, in punishment), prisoners began to break windows and throw projectiles from their cells. Inmates at OSP attempted a mass escape in December 1951, after receiving weapons from a sympathetic guard. The plan was foiled by an informant, John Edward Ralph, who was quickly transferred to Folsom Prison for his own protection. Unrest continued through 1952 with civil disobedience and more escape attempts. Over 1300 prisoners conducted an eight-day hunger strike in August to protest alleged brutality of a guard named Morris Race. In October 1952, an escape attempt involving armed conflict with guards was suppressed with gunfire. On January 1, 1953, prison officials announced the discovery of an escape tunnel being dug by prisoner Robert Green. The tunnel was 12 feet underground and 50 feet long, reaching within 15 feet of the world outside OSP walls.

A major insurrection erupted in July 1953 when prisoners stopped working, on strike for better food and medical care. They barricaded themselves in the cafeteria. Under instructions from Warden Clarence T. Gladden, guards used tear gas to prevent the prisoners from reaching food supplies. The angry prisoners gained control of most of the prison and started fires in the flax plant, laundry room, tailor room, and machine shop. Ultimately the prisoners were subdued by guards with tear gas, shotguns, and rifles. 1100 Rebels were confined to a baseball diamond without food or water, with Warden Gladden saying they would stay there until "I am sure they are repentant". They stayed on the diamond for two days and one night, until twenty ringleaders identified by prison authorities were surrendered, and prisoners agreed to be individually searched.

In what may have been the first sexual reassignment procedure officially conducted in a prison, a male prisoner changed their sex to female, through surgery and hormones, in a period prior to release in 1965.

Discontent continued in the 1960s. The public became aware that only 200 of the 1200 inmates at OSP actually had sentences calling for maximum security incarceration; yet all inmates were treated according to maximum security standards. Prisoners continued to complain about medical care, dental care, and visitation rights.

Unrest culminated in March 1968, in an uprising which began with a surprise takeover of the prison's control center. 700 prisoners took control of the facility, started a fire in the flour shop, and held 40 guards and prison employees hostage. The hostages were freed after prison officials announced the resignation of Warden Gladden (then 73 years old), as well as immunity for the rioters. Prisoners were criticized for damaging facilities that supported them. Ron Schmidt, press secretary of Governor Tom McCall, said: "It's pure devastation. The men destroyed everything that was of any benefit to them."

In November 1968, a work stoppage by 81 prisoners in the laundry room was controlled by guards with clubs, and the prisoners placed in isolation

Also in 1968, OSP inmates founded UHURU, an organization dedicated to Afro-American culture, history, and community service. Although the prison establishment was skeptical at first, UHURU gained official support and had a membership of several hundred in 1982. OSP prisoners were politically active in the following decades, holding forums on politics and communicating with the Oregon NAACP. OSP began to recruit Black staff in 1981 in response to pressure from activist Black prisoners.