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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2016)
Street Roots • Oct. 21-27, 2016 PRISONERS, from page 10 Her family eventually learned about his placement in segregation after another OSP inmate called on Mora-Contreras’ behalf. Additionally, after Mora-Contreras’ transfer, family and friends said they were given the runaround when they tried to find out why he was moved to Eastern Oregon. His close friend and owner of Revolución Coffee House in downtown Portland, Maria Garcia, visited OSP after his transfer, demanding answers that she said she never received. Mora-Contreras spoke with Street Roots from Two Rivers Correctional Institution. He said he didn’t know why he’d been placed in segregation while he was still housed at OSP until after his lawyer submitted an inquiry. He was under investigation and was kept in solitary confinement for 68 days before, as DOC documents obtained by Street Roots show, he was completely cleared of charges. “It was horrible,” Mora-Contreras said of his long stay in segregation. “Imagine a room about 5 feet wide, 8 feet long, 10 feet high. The only building on the premises that’s air conditioned, it’s always cold - in News Page 11 the middle of summer. Lights go on at 5 in the morning; lights go off at 10.1 was in the cell by myself. Your thoughts run wild. You don’t know what’s going on; you’re disoriented, suicidal thoughts will creep in once in a while, and you’re not really getting any answers from anybody. It’s a very lonely and cold place.” He lost 20 pounds and the spark in his eye during that time, observed his mother and Garcia. Mora-Contreras’ family hired an attorney when they discovered he was under investigation and in isolation. In a letter sent to OSP Superintendent Jeff Premo, who recently retired, attorney Zachary Stern argued that his client had a record of clean conduct for more than a decade, had never been classified as a gang member, had earned a bed in the honors dorm and successfully ran the Latino Club. Mora-Contreras was in segregation while corrections staff investigated reports that he efore the investigation began in April, was involved with numerous other prisoners Mora-Contreras was reportedly a model in bringing drugs into OSP. His attorney inmate. He’d been president of the Latino called the investigation “loosely defined” Club for nine years, and staying out of and the allegations, which were ultimately trouble is a prerequisite for that job. He dismissed, “baseless.” created his own niche at OSP, photographing “As you can tell from the enclosed inmate weddings and fundraisers and documents,” he wrote, “the only items Mr. advocating for Hispanic inmates. Mora-Contreras is involved in bringing into His parents and siblings all live in the the institution are local professors and Portland area, and it was easy for his father leaders of other non-profits to aid other to drive his mother to Salem from their inmates ... the only ‘orchestration’ efforts home in Hillsboro for frequent visits. But Mr. Mora-Contreras chooses to engage in Mora-Contreras’ father has a titanium plate are fundraisers for charitable causes.” in his back that prevents him from being During their visit to OSP in September, able to make the three-hour trip to Two DOC director Peters told Mora-Contreras’ Rivers without severe pain. He has not seen close friend, Garcia, that she would conduct his son since he’s been transferred. an investigation into his case. B ora-Contreras indicated in a letter to an attorney after his transfer, that he believed prison staff was targeting him because he advocates for the rights of Hispanic inmates, who he said are ineligible for certain employment opportunities and programs within the prison system, an accusation DOC denies. “If you go into a disciplinary segregation unit,” Mora-Contreras told Street Roots, “most of the population there is of minority - blacks, Hispanics.” Mora-Contreras, 35, was sentenced to life without parole for hiring someone to kill a man engaged to his younger sister when he was 19 years old, and he had been at OSP since the trial ended when he was 22. Now, he said, for all he knows, he could spend the rest of his life out at Two Rivers in Eastern Oregon. 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