A Salem prison employee is accusing the Oregon Department of Corrections of retaliating after she reported a series of safety lapses.
Kristine Gates, a manager in the Oregon State Correctional Institution’s mental health unit, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in Marion County Circuit Court yesterday. It accuses the ODOC, her union and her supervisors of failing to heed years of complaints—and then putting her under investigation and offering her a demotion.
Neither ODOC or its union, the Association of Corrections Employees, responded to a request for comment.
The allegations detailed in the complaint stretch back to 2021, when Gates reported that she was being stalked by a coworker, Jon Wiles, who was watching her through the facility’s surveillance system. That summer, she found out Wiles had been following her and taking photos of her home, the complaint alleges.
Wiles also did not respond to WW’s request for comment.
Gates reported the stalking to her superiors, but Wiles was not reassigned or ultimately disciplined.
Wiles holds great sway at the facility. He was voted head of the corrections union for that facility in 2011, and used his power to halt Gates’ initiatives, she claims, including shutting down a mental health dayroom that Gates was organizing.
Gates says she later learned that the union had grieved Wiles’ discipline and and ultimately reversed a recommended reprimand.
“Instead of stopping the conduct, ODOC allowed it to continue, and allowed the offending...
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