Department of Corrections Records Guide
Agency History - Chronology
Years: 1851-1994
1851 - Oregon State Penitentiary established in Portland.
1862 - Governor designated as superintendent of the State Penitentiary.
1864 - Laws adopted authorizing Governor to appoint superintendent of Penitentiary. Funds appropriated to purchase a site in Salem for ~SP and an insane asylum.
1866 - State Penitentiary relocated to Salem.
1883 - Stove factory using convict labor under contract.
1910 - Penitentiary making bricks for sale and to build state institutions.
1911 - State Parole Board established.
1913 - State Penitentiary placed under supervision of new State Board of Control.
1914 - Capital punishment abolished.
1915 - Flax mill established at Penitentiary.
1917 - State Lime Board established to oversee Lime Plant operation at asp.
1920 - Capital punishment reinstated by vote of the people.
1929 - Annex Farm facility established as the State Training School under asp.
1931- Lime Board abolished and responsibilities transferred to Agriculture Department.
1932 - First cell block built.
1937 - Law passed permitting Board of Control to employ prisoners on state-owned land.
1947 - Laws established for the parole of prisoners.
1948 - Cannery industry started at Penitentiary.
1951 - Minimum security prisoners employed in Tillamook Bum to fight fires and plant trees.
1953 - Manufacture and sale of prisoner's articles of handiwork allowed. Law established reduction of sentences for good behavior.
1955 - Flax plant operation discontinued. Oregon State Correctional Institution established.
1965 - Oregon Women's Correctional Center becomes operational. Corrections Division established under the Board of Control to operate ~SP and other penal and correctional institutions.
1969 - Board of Control abolished. Corrections Division responsibility moved to Governor's Office. Penitentiary Industries Advisory Committee established. A Special Management Unit opened to provide psychological services to inmates.
1971 - Corrections Division responsibility moved to Department of Human Resources.
1987 - Corrections Division became the Department of Corrections.
1991 - Intensive Management Unit opened to house maximum security prisoners.
1994 - Measure 17 mandated that state prison inmates work or receive on-the-job training 40 hours per week.
1997 - Measure 49 passes requiring inmates to work full-time.
1999 - Oregon Corrections Enterprises (OCE) created as a semi-independent agency to streamline the department's effort to put all inmates to work.
2001 - Two Rivers Correctional Institution completed (operating since 1999).
2002 - Coffee Creek Correctional Institution opened (operating since 2001).
2005 - Warner Creek Correctional Facility opened.