Parenting From Prison in Oregon

Parenting From Prison in Oregon

Oregon's privileged visiting policy is more physically generous than most states in this series. During a regular contact visit, the adult in custody and an approved visitor may share a brief embrace and kiss at the beginning and end of the visit, hold hands during the visit, and hold children. Not just a brief hug at the start and end. Hand holding throughout. Children held in the parent's arms.

For a parent with a young child, that last detail is significant. A toddler who can be held by their parent for two and three-quarter hours is having a different experience than a toddler who sits across a table. The physical contact, the weight and warmth of the child in the parent's arms, is a form of parenting that the phone call and the video visit and the handwritten letter cannot provide. Oregon built that into its visiting policy.

But getting to that visit requires navigating a specific sequence, and two things in particular catch families off guard: the phone number validation requirement before any calls can be received, and the notarized consent form required before a minor child can be an approved visitor. This guide covers both, and everything else the system requires to make contact real.

Adults in Custody: Oregon's Language and What It Means

Oregon formally adopted the term "adult in custody" - AIC - in a December 2025 rulemaking, replacing "inmate" throughout its administrative rules. This is not terminology for terminology's sake. It reflects an official position that the person inside the institution is an adult with a custody situation, not an identity defined by that custody.

Throughout this guide, the Oregon DOC's language is used: adults in custody, AICs, the visiting list, the Visitor Services Unit. When official Oregon forms and pages use this language, it is worth knowing why: it is deliberate and recent, and it shapes the way the department frames the relationship between its population and their families.

Before the First Call: Phone Number Validation

Before your family can receive a single phone call from you at an Oregon DOC facility, their phone number must be validated through the ICSolutions system. This is not an account-funding step. It is a verification step, and it happens before any call can connect.

Your family validates their number by setting up a free account at **icsolutions.com**. Once the account is created, they select "Validate Phone Number" from the menu. A credit or debit card is required for the authorization step - not charged, just verified. They need to be in possession of the phone they want to validate and able to receive a text message confirming the validation.

Tell your family to do this before anything else. A family that tries to receive a call from you without completing the validation will not receive it. The validation is the door. Everything else - funding the account, receiving calls, scheduling video visits - happens after the door is open.

For video visits (called Video Interactive Phone / VIP calls in Oregon), families register through ICSolutions after validation. Video visits are available via **ICS MOBILE**, available on Android (Google Play Store) and iOS (App Store), or through a Windows computer. Offsite video visits are fee-based and the fee varies by facility.

Oregon's phone calls are handled by **ICS Corrections / ICSolutions**. Funding goes through Access Corrections. Customer support for prepaid accounts: **888-646-9437**.

Coffee Creek Intake: No In-Person Visits Yet

Adults entering Oregon's DOC system are processed through the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville for the intake and assessment period. During this time, in-person visiting is not available. Adults in the Coffee Creek intake process are not eligible for privileged visiting until they have been moved to their permanent facility.

Phone calls and mail continue during Coffee Creek intake. If the phone number has been validated and the account is funded, calls can be made. Letters can be sent. The relationship does not have to go silent during the intake period. But the in-person visit, and the hand holding and the holding of children that Oregon's visiting policy allows, waits until the permanent facility assignment.

Start the visitor application process during Coffee Creek. The application process takes time - 60 days is the stated processing window at some facilities. The sooner the application is submitted, the sooner the approval comes through, and the sooner the first in-person visit at the permanent facility can be scheduled.

The Visitor Application: Two Paths, One Address

The visitor application process requires the AIC to apply to have someone added to their approved visiting list. The application is not submitted by the prospective visitor alone. It is a process that includes the AIC's involvement.

Once the AIC initiates the addition, prospective visitors can submit the completed application directly to the Visitor Services Unit:

- **Email:** to the Visitor Services Unit (check oregon.gov/doc for current email)

- **Mail:** Visiting Services Unit, 3723 Fairview Industrial Dr. Suite 200, Salem OR 97302

- **Fax:** (503) 373-1173

A criminal records background check is run on all prospective visitors. Allow **60 days** from submission to processing. The visiting system's online portal allows scheduling even before approval, but if a visitor shows up who has not been approved, the visit will be denied at the institution. Do not travel before receiving confirmation of approval.

**For minor children specifically:** A consent form is mailed to the custodial parent of any prospective visitor under 18. That form must be notarized and returned to the Inmate Services Unit before the child can become an approved visitor. In some cases, proof of biological relationship is also required. Minors must be accompanied by an approved adult at all times.

The notarized consent form is an extra step that families often discover at the last moment, when a visit is being planned and the child has not yet been approved. Start this process early. The consent form needs to be mailed, signed, notarized, and returned before the child's name can be added to the list.

Visiting in Oregon: The Sessions, the Contact, the 3-Hour Rule

Visiting happens on weekends and holidays at most Oregon DOC facilities, with some facilities also offering weekday sessions. Sessions run approximately **two hours and 45 minutes**. Generally up to **three visitors per visit**. One visit per visitor per day.

The visiting contact rules, as noted above, are among the most generous in the series for a parent: brief embrace and kiss at the beginning and end, hand holding during the visit, holding of children. The physical connection that Oregon allows in its privileged visiting is worth planning for - know before the visit what those hours will look like with your children in the room.

**The travel accommodation:** If a visitor is traveling more than three hours to reach the facility, they can request to attend **both visiting sessions** on the same weekend day (if space allows). This request must be made at least 30 days in advance by calling **(503) 373-0169**. For a family in Portland visiting the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, that call and that request converts a 4-hour drive each way into two visits back to back - morning and afternoon - instead of one.

Use this. Plan it. Make the call 30 days out.

Eastern Oregon and the Remote Facilities

Oregon is a geographically diverse state that stretches from the rainy coast to the high desert of the Eastern Oregon plateau. The population is concentrated in the Willamette Valley: Portland, Salem, Eugene. The correctional facilities, however, are distributed across the state.

The Oregon State Penitentiary and Oregon State Correctional Institution are both in Salem, easily accessible for Willamette Valley families. Coffee Creek is in Wilsonville, just south of Portland. But Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution is in Pendleton, about 3.5 hours east of Portland. Two Rivers Correctional Institution is in Umatilla, also in far eastern Oregon. Deer Ridge is in Madras in central Oregon. Powder River is in Baker City, nearly 5 hours from Portland. And Warner Creek Correctional Facility is in Lakeview, in the far southeast corner of the state near the Nevada border, one of the most remote correctional facilities in this series.

For families in the Portland metro area visiting someone at Warner Creek or Powder River, the round trip is effectively an overnight journey. The video visit through ICS MOBILE and the phone call through ICSolutions are the primary contact for those families, not supplements to the in-person visit. For those families, the in-person visit is what happens two or three times a year when the trip can be organized.

Use every digital contact channel for the weeks between those trips. ICSolutions for phone and video. Letters by mail. The daily thread that keeps the relationship present across the distance.

The Letter in Oregon

Oregon has not moved to a universal digital mail system for state prisons. Physical letters to AICs at most facilities travel through standard mail, are screened, and are delivered. The handwritten letter remains the artifact that neither the ICS phone call nor the video visit produces.

Write to each child individually. One letter, their name at the top, their world inside it. Oregon's seasons are specific: the weeks of rain in the Willamette Valley, the dry summers in eastern Oregon, the October apple harvest in the Hood River Valley, the December ice storms that close the mountain passes. Write to the season your child is in. Reference the specific thing happening in their life this week.

Ask the real question. Give them something to respond to. A child who receives a letter from their parent at an Oregon state prison, with their parent's handwriting on the pages, is receiving something the screen cannot replicate. Send it.

For the Family Holding Oregon Together

Do these things in order. First: validate the phone number through ICSolutions before anything else. Second: start the visitor application, including the notarized consent form for any minor children, during Coffee Creek intake. Third: set up the ICS MOBILE app for video visits once the phone is validated.

If the facility is in eastern Oregon and the drive is more than three hours, call (503) 373-0169 at least 30 days before the intended visit to request both visiting sessions.

Check the Oregon DOC visiting page at oregon.gov/doc for current visiting hours at the specific facility, because hours vary by institution and by unit within institutions.

And do the harder human work. Oregon allows you to hold your children during a contact visit. That is not nothing. The system built that in. Plan the visit around it. Let the child know before they arrive that they can be held, that the visit is a place where the parent is physically present. For a young child who has not seen their parent since the sentence began, that information matters.

Federal Prison in Oregon: Sheridan

The Federal Correctional Complex at Sheridan, in Yamhill County about 60 miles southwest of Portland, is a large federal facility that includes a Federal Correctional Institution and a Federal Prison Camp. If you are in federal custody at Sheridan or another BOP facility, the national BOP standard applies.

**Phone.** Three hundred minutes per month, each call capped at 15 minutes at $0.06 per minute, plus 100 extra minutes in November and December. Federal calls cost money. Make each one deliberate.

**TRULINCS and CorrLinks.** The BOP email platform costs $0.05 per minute on your end to compose and is free for the family. Up to 30 approved contacts, text only, no attachments. Use it for the daily message the phone call could not hold.

FAQ

**Do I need to validate my phone number to receive calls from an Oregon state prison?** Yes. Before receiving any call from an Oregon DOC adult in custody, your phone number must be validated through a free ICSolutions account at icsolutions.com. Select "Validate Phone Number," provide a credit/debit card for authorization, and complete the process from the phone you want to validate. Without validation, calls will not connect.

**What does Oregon allow during a regular contact visit?** Oregon's privileged visiting policy allows a brief embrace and kiss upon meeting and leaving, hand holding during the visit, and holding of children. This is more generous than many states in the series. Basic visits (for adults in custody in disciplinary housing) do not allow physical contact.

**Can I visit during the Coffee Creek intake period?** No. Adults in custody in the Coffee Creek intake and assessment process are not eligible for in-person visiting until they have been transferred to their permanent facility. Phone calls and mail continue during intake.

**How do I get approved as a visitor in Oregon?** The adult in custody must initiate the process of adding you to their approved visiting list. You can then submit the completed visitor application to the Visitor Services Unit by email, mail (3723 Fairview Industrial Dr. Suite 200, Salem OR 97302), or fax (503) 373-1173). Allow 60 days for processing. A criminal background check is required. Do not travel to a visit without confirmation of approval.

**What does my minor child need to become an approved visitor in Oregon?** A consent form is mailed to the custodial parent, must be notarized, and returned to the Inmate Services Unit before the child is approved. Proof of biological relationship may also be required. Minors must be accompanied by an approved adult at all times.

**What is the 3-hour travel rule in Oregon?** If a visitor is traveling more than 3 hours to reach the facility, they can request to attend both visiting sessions on the same day (morning and afternoon) if space is available. The request must be made at least 30 days in advance by calling (503) 373-0169. This is especially valuable for families in the Portland area visiting eastern Oregon facilities.

**What is the federal situation at FCI Sheridan?** The Federal Correctional Complex at Sheridan includes FCI Sheridan and FPC Sheridan. BOP rules apply: 300 phone minutes per month with 15-minute call caps at $0.06 per minute, plus TRULINCS email through CorrLinks at $0.05 per minute on the inmate's end, free for families, up to 30 approved contacts, text only.