Stronger Protections for Youth in Detention at NORCOR

Our 2017 investigative report, ‘Don’t Look Around’: A Window into Inhumane Conditions for Youth at NORCOR, uncovered that this facility was neglecting the mental health and social development of the kids who were detained there.

Our investigation resulted in:

  • A restructuring of the detention facility’s oversight and governance

  • The end of over-using lockdown time

  • Giving kids more visits with loved ones

  • Eliminating excessively punitive rules, such as forbidding kids from “looking around,” in favor of an evidence-based positive behavior management system


Advocating for oversight of juvenile detention facilities statewide

In Oregon, juvenile detention facilities lack meaningful oversight—no state or local agency is charged with enforcing safe, humane, and appropriate conditions for youth confined in jails. Other advocacy organizations, galvanized by their mutual concern about the findings of our NORCOR report, joined with us to urge the state to provide independent oversight of juvenile detention facilities.

In a joint letter to Governor Kate Brown, we recommended the state put in place and enforce standards for detention facilities that:

  • Shield youth from abuse

  • Provide access to healthcare and education

  • Identify and respond to behavior linked to past traumatic experiences that many youth have endured

In response to our advocacy, Governor Brown committed in March 2018 to scrutinize and improve detention facilities on a number of fronts.



 
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Ending Discrimination in Organ Transplants