Disability Rights Oregon has completed a review of hours of video, interviewed 19 prisoners, and has issued a report detailing abuse of prisoners in Behavioral Health Unit at the Oregon State Penitentiary— including routine use of tasers, pepper-spray, isolation, and denial of access to adequate mental health care.

Disability Rights Oregon (formerly Oregon Advocacy Center) was established in 1977 (as the Oregon Developmental Disabilities Advocacy Center) and is designated as Oregon’s Protection & Advocacy (P&A) system. Following a series of investigative reports in 1975 by reporter Geraldo Rivera, Congress mandated that each state and territory receiving funding under the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 1975 (the “DD Act”) establish a P&A system to protect the rights of people with developmental disabilities.