Oregon Youth Authority says 733 investigations were open or suspended and more than 3,000 cases unsigned; backlog shrinking to 523, director says

Interim Oregon Youth Authority Director Jana McClellan told the Public Safety Committee on March 26 that a January report produced by the Department of Corrections found two troubling case counts in the agency's Professional Standards Office: "One was 733 and one was over 3,000," she said, referencing, respectively, the number of cases that were open or suspended and the number of closed cases that had not been signed off by the chief investigator.

McClellan said the agency has since moved to address the backlog. "That number was 733. That number's going to change up and down because as we go in and look at cases ... we are reopening them for a complete investigation," she told the committee, and later reported the current open and suspended total as 523.

The two figures carry distinct meanings, McClellan explained. The 733 represented cases that were either open or suspended; "suspended" means the agency referred the…