Family Rights and Advocacy in Oregon

If someone you love is locked up in Oregon, the first thing to know is the language. The Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) calls the people in its custody Adults in Custody, or AICs, not inmates or offenders. It is a small shift that reflects an agency that, at least on paper, talks about family bonds and reentry. ODOC holds roughly 12,000 people across 12 institutions, and more than 90 percent of them will eventually come home. Staying connected to you is a big part of whether that homecoming goes well.

I have been on the inside, and I know the family on the outside carries weight nobody talks about. This guide is written for you. Here is how to stay connected, what your loved one is entitled to, what changed recently with phone validation and mail, and where to turn when something goes wrong.

What the ODOC System Looks Like

ODOC runs 12 prisons across Oregon. A few you will hear about often:

Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Wilsonville. This one is unusual: it is both Oregon's only women's prison and the intake center where nearly everyone, men and women, is first processed before being assigned elsewhere. If your loved one just got sentenced, this is likely where they start.

Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP), Salem. The state's maximum-security prison for men, and the only facility in Oregon equipped for executions.

Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI), Salem. A medium-security men's facility.

Snake River Correctional Institution, Ontario. Oregon's largest prison, way out in the far eastern corner of the state, roughly a five-hour drive from Portland.

Others include Two Rivers (Umatilla), Eastern Oregon (Pendleton), Deer Ridge (Madras), Santiam, Shutter Creek, Powder River, Warner Creek, and South Fork.

Here is the hard geography: most of Oregon's people live in the Portland area and the Willamette Valley, but several prisons sit in remote eastern and central Oregon. If your loved one lands at Snake River or Two Rivers, in-person visits can mean a long, expensive trip. To find where they are, use the AIC locator on oregon.gov/doc. You will get their SID number, which you need for mail, phone, and money.

Staying Connected: Phone and Video (Validate Your Number First)

This is the step that trips up Oregon families, so do it before anything else. ODOC contracts with ICS Corrections (ICSolutions) for phone and video, under what it calls the Correctional Communication System. Before your loved one can call you at all, you must validate your phone number through ICSolutions. ODOC staff cannot do this for you.

To validate, set up an account at icsolutions.com, choose Validate Phone Number, provide a credit or debit card (for authorization only), have the phone with you, and be able to receive a text. The whole process usually takes under five minutes. Until your number is validated, you cannot receive calls or video calls.

Once you are validated:

Phone calls go one direction, your loved one calls you, and all calls are recorded except properly arranged legal calls.

Video Interactive Phone (VIP) calls are available through ICSolutions once you register for visitation in your account. For prepaid VIP help or refunds for connectivity problems, call 888-646-9437.

Be honest with yourself about cost. Oregon has not made prison communication free, unlike California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, and advocates have pushed the Legislature to change that. Costs add up fast. Set up a prepaid account, watch the rate, and avoid collect calls, which can exceed ten dollars apiece.

Staying Connected: Video Visitation

Separate from VIP calls, ODOC offers The Visitor video visitation system, also run by ICSolutions. You can do onsite video visits or offsite visits from home. For offsite, download and test the ICS MOBILE app (Windows, Android, or iOS) before scheduling. Offsite visitation is fee-based, and the cost varies by facility.

Staying Connected: In-Person Visiting

In-person visits require you to be on your loved one's approved visitor list first. Important warning: the online scheduling system will let you book a visit even if you are not yet approved, but the visit will be denied at the institution if your status is not current. Always confirm with your loved one that you are on their approved list before you drive out.

To get on the list, submit a visiting application to the Visitor Services Unit. You can email it, fax it to (503) 373-1173, or mail it to Visiting Services Unit, 3723 Fairview Industrial Dr. Suite 200, Salem, OR 97302. Read the Friends and Family Handbook and the Visiting Rule on the ODOC website for current hours, dress code, and what you can bring.

Staying Connected: Mail

Use your loved one's full committed name and SID number, addressed to the institution where they are housed. Be aware that ODOC tightened its mail rules in 2025, further restricting mail access, so check the current correspondence rules on oregon.gov/doc before you send, since policies are changing. Books and magazines must come directly from a publisher or approved vendor; items not from a publisher will be rejected. Legal mail follows separate rules and goes to the institution.

Sending Money

Money you send goes into your loved one's trust account, which they use for commissary, phone, tablet services, and medical co-pays. Confirm the current approved deposit methods on the ODOC website, since the deposit vendor and options can change.

The Family Connections Program

One thing Oregon does that is worth knowing about is its Family Connections program, run by ODOC specifically to support contact between AICs and their families. The agency cites the research directly: children of incarcerated parents are five to six times more likely to become incarcerated themselves than their peers, and people with strong family ties do better after release. ODOC says it is committed to changing practices and policies that hinder family contact and parent-child bonding, and it offers family-centered programs, events, and services.

For you, this matters in two ways. First, it gives you something concrete to point to when you are asking a facility to support visits or family programming. Second, the Family Connections pages on oregon.gov/doc list current programs, including parenting and family events, that you and your children may be able to take part in. Start there if you have kids.

Your Rights and Your Loved One's Rights

Most rights inside belong to the incarcerated person, not to family members, but knowing them helps you advocate.

Your loved one has the right to reasonable contact with the outside world through mail, phone, and visits, subject to the rules above and to discipline. They have the right to medical, dental, and mental health care, to practice their religion, to reasonable accommodations if they have a disability, and to be free from abuse and excessive force. They have the right to use the grievance system, which is the formal way to raise problems and usually must be used fully before a court will hear most claims.

Oregon has a particularly strong record of litigation over prison medical care and disability rights. The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that private medical contractors operating in Oregon jails and prisons must comply with the state law prohibiting disability discrimination, which means companies cannot hide behind their private status when they fail to accommodate people with disabilities.

When Something Goes Wrong: How to Advocate

Start with the grievance system. Encourage your loved one to file and appeal through the formal ODOC grievance process and to document everything, keeping copies and mailing a copy to you on the outside as backup.

Contact Disability Rights Oregon. DRO is Oregon's federally mandated protection and advocacy organization for people with disabilities, which includes mental illness, and it has been doing this work since 1977. DRO has authority to investigate abuse and neglect and to go into places others cannot, including prisons and jails. It has a long, specific record on Oregon prisons, from a landmark report on solitary confinement of people with mental illness in the Oregon State Penitentiary's Behavioral Health Unit, to a report on deaths in Oregon jails, to litigation against for-profit prison medical contractors. If your loved one has a disability or mental illness and is being denied care, isolated, or mistreated, DRO is the most powerful outside resource available to you. Find them at droregon.org.

Contact the Oregon Justice Resource Center. OJRC (ojrc.info) is a nonprofit working to dismantle mass incarceration and improve legal representation. Its programs include the Oregon Innocence Project (wrongful convictions), the Civil Rights Project, the Immigrant Rights Project, the Youth Justice Project, and the Women's Justice Project. That last one matters here: Oregon's rate of incarcerating women tripled over two decades even as crime hit 30-year lows, and the Women's Justice Project works directly with women in prison on their path to success after incarceration. If your loved one is a woman at Coffee Creek, OJRC is a key resource.

Contact the ACLU of Oregon. The ACLU of Oregon (aclu-or.org) works on prisoners' rights and has partnered with DRO and the MacArthur Justice Center on major prison cases, including the fight to hold private prison healthcare companies accountable. They focus on systemic issues rather than individual cases.

Know the legal-help organizations. The Prison Law Office, a nonprofit firm that litigates conditions cases in Oregon, focuses on medical, dental, and mental health care, disability accommodations, excessive force, overcrowding, and solitary confinement. The Lewis and Clark Law School Criminal Justice Reform Clinic also engages in Oregon criminal justice litigation and advocacy.

Use national organizations. The Human Rights Defense Center and Prison Legal News (humanrightsdefensecenter.org) cover prisoner rights and the cost of prison communication. Families Against Mandatory Minimums (famm.org) works on sentencing. Worth Rises (worthrises.org) tracks the prison telecom industry, including the kind of phone and video costs Oregon families face.

Contact elected officials. Oregon's Legislature has actively debated free prison communication. A letter to your state representative or senator about communication costs or a systemic problem adds weight to that fight and can prompt questions to ODOC that a family member cannot ask directly.

Taking Care of Yourself

Validate your phone number today so you do not lose contact time. Get your visiting application in and confirm you are on the approved list before you travel, especially if the prison is hours away in eastern Oregon. Use The Visitor offsite video visits to fill the gaps between long trips, and check the Family Connections pages if you have children. Most of all, connect with other families who understand what doing time on the outside feels like. Staying steady for yourself is part of staying steady for your person.