KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — A minimum security state prison in southern Oregon that was slated to close in 2022 will remain open.
Gov. Kate Brown told the Lake County Prison Committee this week that the Warner Creek Correctional Facility will stay open through the rest of her term, The Herald and News reported.
She told Lake County commissioners and stakeholders that she would leave the decision to the next governor. Brown also thanked them for the “thoughtful presentation” they gave in April advocating for the facility to remain open.
More than 100 Lake County residents work at the prison. Closing it would have displaced hundreds of residents.
Brown in January said she was using her executive authority to close three Oregon prisons including Warner Creek, a decision her office said would save the state more than $44 million, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported at the time.
Her office said Brown would like to reduce the state’s reliance on incarceration and invest more dollars in the program areas that work to prevent people from entering the criminal justice system.
Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem is scheduled to be closed this summer, and Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend is to close by January 2022.
State Rep. E. Werner Reschke in a statement thanked Brown for keeping Warner Creek open, saying it will be “a relief for the people who rely on these family-wage jobs with good healthcare.”
