Oregon will close three prisons

(JANUARY 25, 2021) Three of Oregon's 14 state prisons will close by July 2022. Those are the orders of Oregon Governor Kate Brown. The closures will save the state more than $44 million. The governor wants to spend that money on things like early childhood education.

The three prisons that will close are:

• Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem in July 2021. This facility is a minimum-security work camp that provides inmate labor to the Oregon Department of Corrections, other state and local agencies, and private industries throughout the Willamette Valley.

• Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend in January 2022. This facility was a National Guard radar station. Then it became a prison for up to 302 prisoners. The facility has 56 acres of land and 20 buildings surrounded by forest. Inmates (prisoners) work inside the prison, but they also work on outside crews, primarily with the Department of Forestry, providing services throughout the year and as trained wildland firefighters. During the fire season, inmates are available for use in fighting wildland fires and providing fire camp support throughout the state.

• Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview in July 2022. This facility received the State Energy Efficiency Design award in May 2008 for designs such as its use of geothermal energy, providing 100 percent of the hot water to the facility.

All three prisons are minimum security facilities. Together, they have 749 prisoners and employ 237 people. The prisoners and the employees will be relocated to other facilities.