Oregon DOC highlights $823M deferred maintenance, asks for capital, feasibility funds and IT modernization

The Department of Corrections told the Public Safety Subcommittee on March 12 that its Administrative Services Division faces large deferred‑maintenance and technology shortfalls and requested near‑term planning and capital funds to address them.

DOC officials presented a facilities assessment that identified approximately $626 million in priority‑1 deferred maintenance items — defined in the presentation as critical to health and safety and likely to cause rapid deterioration — and an estimated $823 million in total deferred maintenance from a 2023 analysis of the prior full assessment. The department said a new, statewide facility conditions assessment will begin in 2025.

Administrative Services provided the committee with a breakdown of operating and capital needs. The division's budget was presented as $181.1 million in the Administrative Services portfolio (including about $84.2 million in general funds and $96.9 million in other funds). DOC said it is requesting $70.6 million to address 11 categories of capital repairs (roofs, HVAC, plumbing, hazardous materials abatement, communications and security, electrical, fire marshal repairs, and related items) and $12.3 million in capital construction funds to continue upgrades to the department's wireless communications. The department also said the 2025–27 Governor's Recommended Budget allots $4.5 million in general funds for a feasibility study and conceptual design for a centralized health‑care facility and for planning work on the replacement of the Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP).

DOC described institution‑level challenges at OSP, including buildings approaching 100 years of heavy use, single‑pane windows, peeling paint, water infiltration, broken windows, and HVAC systems that have produced extreme internal temperatures in some areas. The presentation said that bringing buildings into ADA compliance, addressing seismic and major maintenance needs, and upgrading HVAC and other systems would require investments that exceed $200 million. A 2024 HVAC assessment was cited as calling for roughly $230 million in HVAC upgrades to meet current standards.

The division also reviewed logistics and operating units: distribution services (four warehouses, a $22.4 million operating budget, an average daily inventory around $9.5 million and roughly $1.6 million in product distributed monthly), five commissaries financed by other funds that operate without general fund support and funnel profits to an inmate welfare fund, and facility services that reported more than 75 construction and infrastructure projects completed in the current biennium, totaling about $40 million.

IT modernization was another focus. DOC said its offender management system (Corrections Information System, or CIS) is a custom system developed in 1989 that runs on an IBM iSeries/AS400 platform and uses COBOL. DOC staff said the aging platform creates cybersecurity and integration challenges, limits data analytics and hiring of skilled programmers, and will require replacement; the department estimated a replacement timeline of roughly six to eight years if funding were available (vendors have rolled similar projects out in other states in as few as three years, DOC said). Administrative Services reported an ITS budget of $43.7 million and roughly 100 ITS staff; the Office of Research and Decision Support (RDDS) was listed with a $3.6 million budget and seven staff.

Why it matters: DOC said deferred maintenance and aging infrastructure create health, safety and operational risks for incarcerated people, staff and the public, and that the current facility and IT conditions complicate health‑care delivery, programming space and reentry supports. Committee members asked for additional data, including recidivism broken down by age and other follow‑up information.

The presentation was delivered as part of an informational hearing on House Bill 5004; DOC said requests for design and construction funding would be brought in future biennia after feasibility and conceptual design work.

Notes: The presentation identified the Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP) as needing replacement and described a proposal to create a centralized health‑care campus to serve acute medical, mental health and geriatric care needs.