Oregon prisons hit with class lawsuit over solitary confinement program

Five incarcerated individuals on June 11 filed a class action lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Corrections, its director, deputy director, inspector general and two other leaders, arguing that the state subjects hundreds to “dangerous and degrading” solitary confinement practices that violate the state’s constitution and disability rights law.

“Solitary confinement is cruel and unnecessary. It causes harmful mental, emotional, and behavioral changes and worsens existing symptoms of mental illness. It increases violence and instability in prisons and impairs rehabilitation. Solitary confinement prevents people from working, taking classes, joining in prison programs, and preparing to reenter society,” said Ben Haile, senior counsel at Oregon Justice Resource Center. “There are better, safer, less brutal alternatives. The people of Oregon are ready to push ODOC to move past this dark chapter in our State’s history.”

The Oregon Justice Resource Center filed the complaint alongside the Prison Law Office, Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Field LLP on behalf of the five plaintiffs and hundreds of others.

The lawsuit, filed in Marion County Circuit Court, said the conditions to which the plaintiffs and others in ODOC custody are subjected to violate Article 1, Section 13 of the Oregon Constitution, which says that: “No person arrested, or confined in jail, shall be treated with unnecessary rigor.”

“For weeks, months, and even years on end, people held in ODOC’s solitary confinement units typically spend 23 to 24 hours a day inside a stark, windowless box that is smaller than a parking space. They are generally forbidden from spending any time outside. They rarely even see sunlight,” the complaint alleged.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare ODOC’s practices unconstitutional and discriminatory. They’re also asking for an injunction limiting or changing solitary practices and for an order requiring “effective monitoring and reporting by ODOC.”

Who is suing the Oregon Department of Corrections?

The five individuals named in the complaint, Dominique Jenkins-Millage, Orlando Pouncey, Rolando Martinez-Farías, Martin Kirk-Varela, and Linsey Duvall, are currently held in various solitary confinement statuses in ODOC facilities across the state. They are “uniformly subjected to severe and unnecessary restrictions, including extreme limitations on out-of-cell time, exercise and recreation, meaningful human contact, mental stimulation, and hygiene,” the lawsuit added.

They are incarcerated for crimes ranging from assault, robbery and murder. Pouncey was sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for the murder of a man in Tigard. Kirk-Varela was sentenced to 25 years in 2020 in Marion County for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of his friend in Salem.

The lawsuit outlines harsh and inhumane treatment in solitary confinement and includes images of the cells used to house people for 23 to 24 hours a day. The cells are described as cinderblock walls, “tiny” with no exterior windows. They are sometimes locked continuously for 40 or more hours on weekends, holidays and during lockdown.

Some of the cells are sealed with heavy steel doors with narrow slit windows, while others are sealed with thick, solid plexiglass or perforated steel, as described in the lawsuit.

Jenkins-Millage is described as a man currently in solitary at the Snake River Correctional Institution who was transferred from solitary at the Oregon State Penitentiary. He expected to spend at least seven months in solitary for a fight with other prisoners, lawyers said.

His solitary means 23 to 24 hours a day inside a small cell where he is prohibited from programming, is severely restricted from outside contact, and deprived of mental stimulation that has led to the development of mental health symptoms of depression or bipolar disorder, the complaint said.

“People hear the term ‘solitary confinement’ and think it’s simply being alone. It’s not,” said Jenkins-Millage in a statement. “It’s being cut off from human connection, day after day, sometimes for months or years. The isolation changes you. The silence becomes overwhelming, your sense of time disappears, and the physical, psychological and emotional toll can be devastating. This is the lowest point of my entire life, and I’ve been shot and experienced homelessness.”

“I don’t wish this on anybody,” added Jenkins-Millage in a statement. “[I am participating in this case] because I wish it was a little bit better in the future, even if not for me.”

Pouncey is in solitary confinement at the Oregon State Penitentiary and is expected to remain there for a year. He has spent a cumulative 11 years in solitary, according to the lawsuit.

He has been diagnosed with depression and PTSD and has experienced new symptoms like auditory hallucinations and uncontrollable self-talk, the lawsuit said. Pouncey also has a “severe vision disability” that ODOC has not adequately accommodated and has worsened his isolation, the suit added.

Martinez-Farias has been incarcerated in solitary at the Oregon State Penitentiary for three months and expects to spend another five and a half months there. He has spent three and a half years in solitary confinement across the ODOC. His anxiety and depression began during a stay in solitary that lasted a year and a half.

The complaint said he has seen mental health staff a single time during his time in solitary.

Martinez-Farias has also been unable to contact his three teenage children.

Kirk-Varela expects to spend more than seven months in solitary at the Snake River Correctional Institution. He’s spent seven to eight years in solitary confinement and has been diagnosed with depression and PTSD, which the complaint said has worsened because of his current conditions.

He was an “eager participant” in programming while in general population housing but has been “stripped” of all rehabilitative opportunities in solitary, the lawsuit said.

“My children don’t know where their father is and I don’t know where they are. It is unbearably distressing to not know, constantly having to question. I can’t be the father I want to be and who my children deserve to have,” said Kirk-Varela in a statement.

Duvall is in solitary confinement at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. She’s been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, anxiety and PTSD, and also suffers from celiac disease and “severe” nerve, skeletal, and muscular pain that requires the use of a wheelchair. Her mental illness has been exacerbated, the lawsuit said, and the cell is not wheelchair-accessible.

She has repeatedly injured herself against the metal corner of her bed, the OJRC said.

The complaint said she also struggles to sleep in her unit because of the screams of other incarcerated people experiencing acute mental health crises.

The lawsuit said class members are deprived of contact with those outside of prison and cut off from contact with parents, partners and children during crises. One unnamed class member was unable to communicate with their child undergoing treatment for stage 3 cancer. Another learned his mother had a stroke while in solitary and had also been in solitary when his child died.

Lawsuit claims Oregon Department of Corrections is aware of dangerous and unnecessary program

“ODOC understands that its solitary confinement program is destructive and ineffective,” the lawsuit said.

The complaint points to a 2016 study of solitary confinement in ODOC at the invitation of its leadership, which found those in the Disciplinary Segregation Unit, Intensive Management Unit, and Administrative Segregation units spent an average of 23 hours a day in conditions “marked by isolation, idleness, and sensory deprivation.”

The Vera Institute, which conducted the study, recommended increasing out-of-cell and outdoor time, access to visitation and telephone privileges, entertainment devices, and mental health professionals, but those recommendations remain largely unimplemented a decade later, according to the complaint.

ODOC also signed a memorandum of understanding to implement remedies, including increasing out-of-cell time in its high acuity mental health unit with Disability Rights Oregon, after its investigation in 2015 found people being kept in “small, stifling cells” up to 23 hours a day with few psychiatric services. Those same reforms have gone unimplemented in other solitary confinement units, the lawsuit said.

And in 2023, a Gender Informed Practices Assessment of Coffee Creek warned ODOC that it was failing to meet the needs of incarcerated women. Their findings included multiple reports that disciplinary segregation “continues to be overutilized.”

They “are locked in their cells for 22 hours a day, which is a form of sensory deprivation that is a barrier to stability and learning. This kind of response does not motivate or change behavior and has been proven to cause psychological and physical harm,” wrote investigators in 2023.

The lawsuit also highlights comments from ODOC’s own leadership that the complaint said highlight their knowledge that ODOC’s solitary confinement policies and practices are harmful and unnecessary.

Oregon Department of Corrections claims work continuing to address issues around solitary confinement

Earlier in 2026, ODOC settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $2.3 million filed by the mother of Grayson James Allen Painter, a 22-year-old man who died by suicide while in solitary confinement at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem.

Oregon Justice Resource Center also represented Painter’s mother.

ODOC said the settlement “reflects our commitment to evaluating the policies and practices that can prevent in-custody deaths,” ODOC said in January.

Also in 2026, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility Superintendent Charlotte Thrasher provided testimony before Gov. Tina Kotek’s Racial Justice Council, where she conceded that “the use of segregation isn’t an effective tool to change behavior” and noted that she supported efforts to reduce the use of solitary confinement, the lawsuit said.

In an email, a spokesperson for ODOC said the agency continues to develop “long‑term, evidence‑based strategies to improve safety and reduce the need for special housing.”

The spokesperson claimed ODOC has increased out‑of‑cell time in specialized units, implemented “Resource Teams” modeled after Norwegian practices, enhanced violence‑prevention tools, piloted transition programs for adults leaving Intensive Management Units, built a Peer Mentorship Certification Program to promote pro‑social behavior and expanded supports for individuals with substance use disorders.

ODOC also has a public-facing dashboard of disciplinary housing statistics, ODOC said.

There were 451 adults in custody assigned to disciplinary segregations units as of June 1, according to the dashboard. SCRI was the facility with the most adults in custody assigned to segregation units with 128. Two Rivers Correctional Institution followed with 119.

“These initiatives are ongoing and will take time, staffing stability, and sustained collaboration with state partners, labor organizations, and external stakeholders. DOC remains committed to this long‑term cultural transformation and to ensuring our practices continue to evolve in alignment with research, safety needs, and constitutional standards,” ODOC said.

The agency said it would not comment further on the allegations because litigation is pending.

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at [email protected] X @DianneLugoor Bluesky @diannelugo.bsky.social

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon prisons hit with class lawsuit over solitary confinement program

Reporting by Dianne Lugo, Salem Statesman Journal / Salem Statesman Journal