Federal auditors praised the staff of Oregon’s largest juvenile detention center, MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, for working swiftly to protect residents from harassment or inappropriate comments.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (or PREA), created by the federal government more than two decades ago, creates a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse in correctional facilities. The idea is to ensure all detention facilities give inmates several ways to report sexual abuse and also ensure the allegations are investigated. Each of the Oregon Youth Authority’s nine facilities is audited every three years. In 2025, that included MacLaren and the Albany-based Oak Creek Youth Correctional Facilities and Jackie Winters Transition Program.

The audit released Monday by the youth authority found that “the vast majority of staff act immediately to protect residents from harassment and inappropriate comments” at MacLaren. And kids in custody also reported to the auditors they had “numerous examples of staff using wisdom and skill to prevent problems and to intervene and redirect when needed.”

It’s welcome news for a facility that’s been plagued by disturbing allegations of sexual misconduct and facing numerous lawsuits in the past couple of years.

Alisha Goodwin is the youth authority’s PREA coordinator. She’s in charge of training staff and working to detect and prevent sexual abuse. Goodwin said an audit of a facility as big as MacLaren is a lot more complicated than examining the smaller facilities. She said the auditors visited the facility, interviewed staff and youth and requested a lot of documentation. The U.S. Department of Justice requires the PREA audits.

Overall, there are about 850 kids in the custody of the state’s juvenile justice system. People aged 12 to 24 convicted of crimes are housed in the facilities, with MacLaren being the largest.

The audit shared some insight into McLaren: It has capacity for about 200 kids with the average daily population of about 165 for the 2024-25 audit period. There are about 12 detainees per housing unit. There are about 314 staff members employed at the facility, during the audit, who come in contact with the kids in custody.

In the 12 months preceding the audit, there were 35 allegations of sexual abuse categorized as inmate-on-inmate and 15 characterized as staff-on-inmate sexual abuse, for a total of 50. Out of those, eleven resulted in criminal investigations, according to the audit.

The Oregon Youth Authority, the agency that oversees the state’s juvenile justice system, has come under more intense scrutiny recently. Last year, it became clear there was a massive backlog of complaints across the system that weren’t fully investigated. The governor fired the former head of the agency after several allegations of misconduct came to light, including the backlog of complaints.

The audit stands in stark contrast to a grand jury report in 2025 that was titled “Cascading Failures.” That report detailed a litany of issues from high staff turnover, burnout, growing gang activity and more intense mental health needs of the youth in custody.

Overall, there are about 850 kids in the custody of the state’s juvenile justice system. People aged 12 to 24 convicted of crimes are housed in the facilities, with MacLaren being the largest.

Last April, the governor hired Katherine O. Berger, a criminal defense attorney, to work in her office as an ombudsman for the teens and young adults in the state’s custody. Berger, also known as K.O., previously worked at the Oregon Public Defense Commission.

Berger did not respond to a request for comment from OPB for this story.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/23/oregon-juvenile-prison-allegations-maclaren-youth-facility/