When a power outage struck Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, hundreds of inmates and staff began to fall ill with COVID-19. Then, they started to die. No prison in Oregon was hit harder by the pandemic.
The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association awarded this story Best Story of the Year in 2021. It also won best investigative reporting in a small newsroom from the Oregon Society of Professional Journalists.
In February 2022, a school board member in Bend leaned into the microphone during a public meeting to sound the alarm over the widespread use of racial slurs in schools. The meeting underscored a districtwide pattern of racial harassment so bad that families were pulling their children out of class and placing them in online learning.
In June 2022, four Madras police officers approached the city with a shocking disclosure. Much of the department — possibly half of its officers — were at risk of quitting because of what they alleged was serious misconduct involving their chief.
But city officials did little — if anything — to investigate the officers’ allegations. The state of Oregon opened its own case and reviewed the allegations. Within a month, officials moved to close the case “with no action.”
Indigenous people in Oregon experience domestic violence at a rate more than three times the state’s average. But many of their cases fall through cracks due to a dizzying jurisdictional maze that critics say makes Indian Country lawless. Federal authorities decline to prosecute more than one out of every four criminal cases stemming from Oregon tribal land.
These are the stories of the women who survived and dedicated their lives to fighting back.