Hi All,

I'm new at this and have a daugher going to coffee creek soon. They say between 29 to 36 months she will serve. But she will get good time (any thoughts on how that works)? Also they say there are alot of programs she can do that will help knock off time? I would like any infomation on how things work and what it is like there if any of you know? Please as a mother I'm scared of course. Just the thought of it keeps me in tears.

Praying that she will be safe and make it through this. Would like to know what visiting is like since she has a 4year old daughter that will need to see her. What kind of life is she looking at while there? All the basic questions?

Thank you and any responses would be greatly appreciated!
dazeymist

Bless you, my dear! I've never been to Coffee Creek to visit because it was built after my daughter got out of the Oregon women's max prison. I can tell you, though, that your daughter is going to be fine. I've mentored several women there, so I know what it's like. It's not as bad as I'm sure you're imagining it will be for her. There were said to be a lot of new things that were going to be offered in the new prison, so I'm sure there will be a lot of programs for her to choose from. When my daughter was sent there, I was very deeply touched because the ladies I had been friends with there took great care to see that she was okay and had what she needed. Like you, I was just terrified when she got sentenced there and so was she. I just recently got a birthday card from one of the ladies I was good friends with there after not hearing from her for awhile. If you'll PM me your daughter's name, I'll write to my friend and ask her to watch for your daughter to come in. I'm sure she'll do all she can to help, because that's the kind of lady she is and she's been in for a long time. She's also got a lot of friends and a big network she can use to help your daughter.

When I say things like "when my daughter was sent THERE" I mean to Oregon's max prison. OWCC was max and the women who were at OWCC are now at Coffee Creek, so it does house max prisoners, too.

A big hug for you! Just be strong for your daughter. She's going to be fine.

HI,
Sorry to hear about your daughter. My Fiancee has been at CCCF for about six months now. I beleive that good time is 10% of the sentence. As far as the programs go, there really dosen't seem to be alot of them available. You have to wait for everything. Computer lab has a big waiting list. Overcrowding is a problem. I have been told that there are more men there than women now because ODOC is running out of places to put them. Don't worry they are kept well separated. The visiting is ok. No glass or anything and you are allowed a hug and kiss coming and going. It is, of course, prison. There are some mean people there with nothing to lose, people with mental problems etc. My Fiancee has not had too many problems, but has had to fight twice, after she stood up for herself things got easier. There are mail rules and visiting rules that your daughter will be able to fill you in on. No blue jeans or blue shirts or sweaters or hooded sweatshirts are among the few thigs you can't wear. I hope none of this alarms you, it really has been about as good as we could have expected in our case. Remember, they can and do read mail you send to her. There will be things that she probably won't be able to talk to you about in the vising room . The guards listen sometimes. The inmate is held responsible for your behavior. Take note of all the female guards in visiting and then ask your daughter how many female guards there are back in her unit. It appears to me that ODOC is putting a female face on for the public, I'am not sure why. My fiancee has had no Sexual problems from any of the staff there and it does not appear to her that it is occuring. Anyway, if you have more questions feel free to ask here or e-mail me, I won't be busy for the next 3 years.

Of course, it being a max prison, there are some people there who have mental problems, but it's not a place where you have to fight a lot or anything.

What I found to be unpleasant about the women's max prison here in Oregon is that the men are allowed a lot more privileges than the women are, and women are less violent. I don't believe it should be that way.

The mail rules are pretty strict. You can't send in any greeting cards or stationery that are blank, books can't come from the bookstores, they have to come from the publisher and even then, sometimes they reject them. You can put money on their books but a certain amount will be taken out if they owe fines or restitution. There are jobs that can be gotten and they're required to work, or at least they were last time I heard. Coffee Creek was supposed to be better than OWCC, but maybe their hopes were gotten up too high.

There are men guards who work there, but I didn't notice an overwhelming number of women guards in the visiting room. There were men and women about equally the times I've visited.

Dazeymist, your daughter is going to be fine. Tell her to just do her time, mind her own business, and don't be too trusting of others who seem friendly till she knows for sure who she's dealing with. Don't worry about her. I promise you she'll be okay.

:) ~WELCOME TO PTO~ :)

Well, being someone who visits 3 times a week I have noticed alot more women working the visiting. There ARE people sent to the hole for fighting. I f you have never been to visit how did you notice this? I would be very cautios of people who want to be your friend. Yes it is violent, not as bad as you would see on tv or the movies but my fiancee was assaulted on the 2nd day she was there. It is almost impossible to mind your own business, you have to live and associate with these people everyday. Hopefully she can get into J-unit wich is better than the others. This is advice you can take with a grain of salt but anyoone who thinks that these are wonderful ladies in there are kidding themselves. There ARE good people there, there are also some very bad people there, it is prison and I won't paint some rosy picture for you. My advice is that she does mind her own bussiness as much as possible, do what she is told and she will be ok. But don't kid yourself either. IT IS PRISON.... bad things can and do happen in there. In the last 2 weeks my fiancee has witnessed 5 fights and heard about others. Read the Oregonian about the mounting issue with the mentally ill in prison. The foood is terrible, Learn how to send money for canteen. I'am sure everything will be ok. it has been for us, but don't count on someone taking care of her in there. Your support and love will be what keeeps her going. Write as often as possible, get a a newspaper or magazine subscription for her. I order books from Amazon .com for my fiancee. These little things can make all the diffrence. It will not be easy but she will survive. Like I have done for my fiancee, assure that she is still loved and not forgotten, that her life will still be there when she gets out. Phone calls aren't to exspensive if you live close. You can send money to get pre-paid phone calls, I think it is cheaper that way but you have to start with 50$ and mail it to someplace in Texas. Try not to worry too much, it dosen't help My last piece of advice to you and her is TRUST NO ONE Toi-ama where are you getting your info? It just doesn't seem to fit with some of the things I have come to learn about CCCF My info comes first hand from someone I have known fo 4 years and from someone I trust. Maybe you should take a second look at some of the info you are recieving, or maybe I should

Well, if you go back to read my post, you'll see that I said that the Coffee Creek facility is new. However, it's still the Oregon max women's prison, still run by the same policies Oregon has had all along, and I've been writing to women there since 1996 as well as my daughter having done some time there. My visiting was done at the old facility, meaning the old building. I said in my post that when I said when my daughter was "there" I meant the old facility, but it's still the same prison, basically. The women I've befriended there over the years have been mostly lifers, other than my daughter, and while there are fights I'm sure, mostly it's the tensions you'd expect among people locked up for a long time in a prison, but nobody wants to get a DR or go to the hole, so they try to stay out of trouble. My one friend that I've been in contact with the longest is in for 15 to life and I've been writing to her since she'd only been in for a few years and now she's coming up for parole in about 3 years. She's never been in a fight or been to the hole and she's a very dominant kind of personality who could have gotten into that kind of trouble if anyone could.

I don't doubt that your daughter will see people acting out and see some fights. Those things happens sometimes in there. I'm surprised that it's as bad as pdxb's fiance describes. I'll have to ask my friend if it's gotten that bad there. Maybe it has and she just hasn't had a chance to mention it to me.

Well I do appreciate the information and i've told my daughter to do just as she needs to... She is a tough one and I do worry about the fighting cause she is small but carrys a mean stick. What i'm trying to say is she can stick up for herself in a one on one but the thought of more than that is what worries me... And i know she is going to be the type that other inmates may want to test, but she will not take crap so maybe that will help... i mean like she won't be as though she is scared to death in there. Do you understand what i'm saying. I pray she is safe and hope things start off okay for her. You know sometimes we need to hear positive things when we are facing things like this and i appreciate all the help...but can any of you tell me what intake is like? what they can have in the first thirty days and if i put money on her books before she leaves here can she use it when she gets there during intake or does she have to wait? I am so worried. I heard if you take boot camp you get less time and its better to take that is this true?

HI
I hopesome of the things I have said did not scare you too much. Like ii said before, it is been about as good as we could have hoped. Fights are a fact of life in there and there was a problem for my Fiancee with a "gang". The fights are usally very short, so as not to be witnessed by a guard, which results in hole time. Intake usally lasts a couple of weeks. They evaluate the inmate, give a medicl check etc. They are "celled" in most of the time while on intake and are not allowed visits.Once they are done with there evaluation she will be assigned to a unit and will be able to send you a visitors form. You will need I.D. for children as well as yourself but my experience with visiting has been very good. Have your daughter send you a copy of the visting rules with the visitor form. Boot camp does cut your sentence, but it is not easy. People who have been sent to boot camp have returned to CCCF to finish the rest of thier sentence. Not everyone makes it. They have a new alternative incarceration program starting that they do right there at CCCf. It is pretty much the same thing as boot camp without the military crap. Maybe she could get into that. Worrying does not help. I was so worried before my fiancee left. I read everything I could about prison Tha really did not help because all it did was make me think about it more. Don't worry, it won't be easy but she will be ok. The first part is the hardest, then it starts getting easier. The Medium facility, as they like to call it, seems to be fairly well run, I don't know about the Minimum facility. Like I have said before , I was so very worried about my fiancee, it was almost too much. Don't think about it all the time. Again,sorry if I have alarmed you. It really has not been to bad for her there. The worst part for her was alll
the time she has to sit and think about whats going on outside, how she will put her life back together, how her children are doing, that is the worst part. Missing your loved ones. Write as often as possible, it helps them alot in there. Hope this answers a few of your questions. feel free to ask more

You're right about the boot camp being tough and them getting sent back easily. We have a family friend who went through boot camp, got out and was working and trying real hard to follow the rules but they violated her and said she was trying to have a relationship with someone. She wasn't. People say it's set up so that they can't make it out here and get sent back. I believe that now that it happened to her. Why they'd do it that way, I really don't know.

Yes the boot camp can be tough. My Fiancee also mentioned something about people being sent back for "relationship" issues. Makes you wonder what is going on. I've been told that doc's bootcamp is harder than the army's by someone who has done both. Do remember that more people finish boot camp than fail but the failure rate is significantly high.

pdxb is right, he's pretty much got it figured out. there is no Max prison for women in oregon, in fact there is only one maximum prison in all of oregon and that is osp. coffee creek is min/max. it is the only oregon prison for women, except for the few who can make it to summit (bootcamp). coffee creek serves for inmate population intake for all of oregon male and female. so even if your'e going to snake river, you will go to coffee creek first. that process is SUPPOSED to take only two weeks but usually goes longer. the faster it goes the better, because there is precious little anything while in intake. your'e pretty locked down. it's no party anywhere but better in be in population than intake.
coffee creek started the "pilot" phone card system for the female inmates, but i never heard if it has expanded beyond to the male prisons. i hop so because phone communication can be an evil obstacle.
i don't know of anyone who has gone through summit, it sounds like if you just look at someone suspiscously you get canned. but i wonder if it's the same for the male inmates. not everyone can go to bootcamp. you have to qualify. some things wil make you exempt from participating like being an S.O.