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. Out there, he said,
opportunities are scarce, he’s far from
family, and he’s surrounded by gang
members.
“The jobs are limited out here,” he said.
“You’re out in the middle of the desert, in a
unit with 100 other people, isolated from
everything else.”
M
emily@streetroots. org
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