Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Corrections Health topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate Bill 24: Advocates and correctional health staff urge legislation to study and set DOC medical staffing and wages
Summary
Supporters, correctional clinicians and union representatives told the Senate Health Care Committee that Senate Bill 24 would address chronic understaffing and wage disparities in Department of Corrections medical services, directing a study and setting minimum staffing requirements and a biennial market wage review if adopted as amended.
Senate Bill 24 would direct the Oregon Department of Corrections to study healthcare staffing across its facilities and submit a report to the Legislative Assembly by Sept. 15, 2026, supporters told the Senate Committee on Health Care on March 13.
Representative Courtney Neron, who represents the district that includes Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, urged the committee to back the bill, saying chronic understaffing and noncompetitive wages have delayed routine medical care and strained providers. "Many adults in custody enter prison with complex medical conditions, mental health challenges and substance use disorders," Representative Courtney Neron said. "Due to understaffing and outdated processes, routine medical care can take months."
Why it matters: Witnesses described long waits for specialty care, frequent use of short-term contract staff, mandated overtime, and burnout among permanent employees. Committee materials and testimony said the bill’s dash-1 amendment would require DOC to conduct a biennial market study of wages and benefits for health-services classifications and to set minimum staffing requirements and ratios.
What supporters said
- "Mandating minimum staffing levels has proven to improve the conditions of both patients and health care staff," said Senator Lisa Reynolds, who also identified herself as a practicing pediatrician. Reynolds recounted visiting Coffee Creek and meeting people who had experienced delayed care.
- Representative Hai Pham told the committee that DOC medical staff work in unsafe ratios and that the bill would help "ensure wages are competitive with other hospital systems to strengthen our workforce, recruitment and retention efforts."
- Union leaders and frontline staff from Oregon AFSCME described chronic short staffing across multiple institutions and warned that turnover and reliance on agency staff increase legal and clinical risk. Joe Basler, executive director of Oregon AFSCME, said the shortage is statewide and likely to produce liability and safety concerns.
Voices from DOC clinical staff
Several DOC clinicians testified about workplace conditions and patient impacts. Dr. Lauren Pruitt, the facility’s only OB-GYN at Coffee Creek, described performing many ancillary tasks because of missing support staff and said union protections recently enabled staff to raise concerns. Registered nurse Liz Sabin said mandated and unplanned overtime is frequent and that agency nurses arrive with uneven training, leaving permanent staff to shoulder additional supervisory work.
Other clinicians described rising caseloads, scarce ancillary staff, and limited access to post-operative or post-release services that they said harm patient outcomes and increase clinician burnout. "We have been piecing together borrowed management and agency staff for years," said Jamie Price, a registered nurse at Coffee Creek. "This is not sustainable."
Bill details and status
Committee staff summarized the bill as requiring DOC to study staffing and produce a report by Sept. 15, 2026, and noted a dash-1 amendment that would add a biennial market study and minimum staffing ratios. Representative Neron and other witnesses argued those changes would help DOC compete with private-sector wages and the Oregon State Hospital.
What the committee heard about scope and limits
Witnesses requested clarity on the specific staffing ratios and on implementation timelines. Committee staff warned that some elements would require coordination with bargaining units and that the biennial wage study could lead to future funding requests to rebalance positions rather than adding new staff immediately.
Next steps
The committee closed the public hearing on SB 24 for the day and accepted testimony and written materials in the posted record. If advanced later, the measure would be considered for referral to Ways and Means because of potential fiscal implications.
Ending: Legislators and frontline clinicians framed SB 24 as a step toward stabilizing correctional medical services; committee staff and witnesses said specifics about funding, bargaining and timelines will determine whether the bill resolves the problems described or only begins a longer process of reform.
