The Detention Center
Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC) and Multnomah County Inverness Jail (MCIJ)
- Operated byMultnomah County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division
- Jail addressesMCDC - 1120 SW Third Avenue, Portland, OR 97204, inside the Justice Center downtown, (503) 988-3689. MCIJ - 11540 NE Inverness Drive, Portland, OR 97220, (503) 988-5060
- What each doesMCDC also serves as the county's booking and release location. All mail for adults in custody is routed through Inverness regardless of where the person is housed
- Budgeted capacity1,130 jail beds. 'On August 1, 2023, the budgeted jail capacity increased to 1,130 jail beds' - the Sheriff's Office's own monthly jail report
- PopulationAverage daily population 991 in July 2026, 88 per cent of budgeted capacity - the July 2026 monthly jail report
- Throughput1,801 standard bookings in July 2026, averaging 58 a day; average length of stay 16.75 days; zero forced releases (emergency population releases) that month
- Federal holdsAn average of 6 exclusive US Marshals adults in custody per day in July 2026, published in the same monthly report
- Forced-release ruleEmergency population releases may occur under Multnomah County Board Resolution 04-135 as part of the jail capacity management plan; capacity calculations are based on 4 a.m. population counts and the plan triggers at 95 per cent of budgeted capacity
- Independent reviewAt the Sheriff's own request, two National Institute of Corrections representatives toured both corrections facilities in late November 2023 and evaluated security operations and health services. The NIC report was delivered on 12 January 2024, shared with the County Chair and published
- OversightAn annual Corrections Grand Jury facilitated by the District Attorney's Office and conducted by county residents, plus Board of Commissioners oversight, the County Auditor, the County Ombudsperson and Disability Rights Oregon
Source: Multnomah County Sheriff's Office - Jails · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
7/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✓Deaths in custody
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found. Neither the county nor the Sheriff's Office publishes a construction date for MCDC or Inverness Jail on the pages read
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found as a construction figure. Operating money comes through the county's adopted budget - the Fiscal Year 2027 budget, adopted 5 June 2026, totals about $4 billion across 11 departments and the three independently elected offices of Auditor, Sheriff and District Attorney, and the county states it maintains full jail capacity
- Beds1,130 budgeted jail beds across the two facilities since 1 August 2023 - the Sheriff's Office's own monthly jail report
Since then
- Budgeted capacity increased to 1,130 beds on 1 August 2023, per the monthly jail report
The Sheriff
Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell
- Runs the jailYes - the Sheriff's Office Corrections Division operates both county jails, the Multnomah County Detention Center and the Inverness Jail
- How the office is filledElected countywide. The county's own About page lists the sheriff among the officials 'elected countywide' alongside the board chair, district attorney and auditor; the Board of Commissioners is elected by district
- In office since2023 - Multnomah County's 41st Sheriff and the first woman to hold the rank
- CareerBegan with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in 1996 and rose through deputy, lieutenant, captain, chief deputy and undersheriff across nearly 30 years. One of only two Multnomah sheriffs to have held dual police and corrections certification while in office
- OfficeMultnomah County Sheriff's Office, 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 350, Portland, OR 97214 - 503-988-4300
- StandingExecutive-level certification from the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training; board member of Trauma Intervention Program NW, Camp Rosenbaum and the Oregon-Idaho HIDTA
- How this was verifiedNamed on the Sheriff's Office's own biography page, on the monthly jail reports the office publishes, and in its press releases
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Multnomah County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Oregon Circuit Court judges are elected in nonpartisan races to six-year terms and are state judicial officers, not county officials. A judge, not the sheriff, sets security amounts and release conditions; the sheriff's office only receives the money and releases the person. Justices of the Peace are the hybrid: a JP is both a state-authorised court judge and a county elected official, elected to a six-year term, with the county paying for the court. ORS 169.320 makes the sheriff the keeper of the county jail; the sheriff may appoint a keeper but remains responsible. Multnomah County is the whole of the 4th Judicial District and has the largest circuit bench in Oregon, with separate chief judges for criminal, civil and family law under a Presiding Judge, plus criminal, civil, family and juvenile referees who hear first appearances and other matters. Multnomah County has no Justice Court, so unlike most Oregon counties there is no locally elected Justice of the Peace here; every judicial officer who touches bail in this county is a state judicial officer. Multnomah has voted on whether to make its sheriff appointed rather than elected; the office remains elected countywide.
Circuit Court - 4th Judicial District (Multnomah County)
- Judith H. Matarazzo - Presiding Judge
- Judge Greenlick - Chief Criminal Judge
- Patrick W. Henry - Chief Family Court Judge
- Judge Rees - Chief Civil Court Judge
- Jacqueline L. Alarcon - Lead Probate Judge
Criminal and Civil Referees, Multnomah County Circuit Court
- Monica M. Herranz
- Benjamin S. Johnston
- Mark A. Peterson
- Eric A. Lentz
- Erin Kirkwood
- Rebecca Lease
- Jane Fox
- Kenneth Stafford
- Kami White
- Concetta Schwesinger
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Multnomah is the most open county in this group by a wide margin. The Sheriff's Office publishes a monthly jail report from its Planning and Research Unit carrying standard bookings, forced releases, average length of stay, budgeted capacity, average daily population, percentage of capacity by day and a daily count of exclusive US Marshals adults in custody. Reports for January to July 2026 were posted when checked; older ones are by public records request.
- capacity: the July 2026 report is the source for 1,130 beds and an average daily population of 991, 88 per cent of capacity, with no day exceeding 95 per cent of budgeted capacity that month.
- deaths: the Sheriff's Office publishes in-custody death press releases as a matter of routine. Two were published within three days in August 2026 - a death at the Multnomah County Detention Center on 18 August 2026 and a 48-year-old man at Inverness Jail on 20 August 2026 - each naming the investigating body and stating that the Medical Examiner leads the death investigation. Earlier custody-death releases are also on the site.
- inspections: recorded 'yes' on the National Institute of Corrections evaluation of security operations and health services at both jails, requested by the Sheriff, delivered 12 January 2024 and published. The county also runs an annual Corrections Grand Jury facilitated by the District Attorney's Office and conducted independently by county residents, and names Disability Rights Oregon among bodies with oversight authority.
- prea: recorded 'no'. The Sheriff's Office names the Prison Rape Elimination Act among the standards that guide it on its Accountability page, but no PREA audit report or audit result is published.
- contracts: recorded 'no'. The monthly jail report publishes the daily count of exclusive US Marshals adults in custody - an average of 6 a day in July 2026 - so the existence and size of the federal holds is public, but no agreement or per-day rate is published.
- fees: recorded 'no'. Bail can be self-posted through TouchPay Online under MCSO Facility #297204 and there is a lobby route at Inverness and 24-hour posting at the Justice Center, but no phone rate, video visit rate or commissary price list is published. Social visitation is in person, and the Sheriff's Office warns that weekend social visitation may be cut by staffing.
- roster: the Sheriff's Office publishes a 'Find an adult in custody' search at https://apps.mcso.us/paid , linked from its Corrections Division and Jails pages.
- The Sheriff's Office also publishes a reported crime data dashboard, HB 2355 STOP stop-data reports for 2019 to 2024, an annual use of force report and control event statistics, and runs an Internal Affairs complaint route with an online form.
- state_inspection: Oregon has no state jail inspection body and the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association publishes no per-jail finding, so this is recorded empty even though this county publishes the most independent review of any in the group.
- Multnomah County is governed by a Board of County Commissioners made up of a Chair elected at large and four Commissioners elected by district, all on nonpartisan ballots to four-year terms. As listed on the county's own Board page when checked, the members are Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Meghan Moyer (District 1), Shannon Singleton (District 2) and Vince Jones-Dixon (District 4); no District 3 Commissioner was listed on the page at the time of checking. Regular board meetings are Thursdays at 9:30 a.m. and board briefings Tuesdays at 10 a.m., at 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd, and are livestreamed. The Board adopted a $4 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2027 on 5 June 2026 by a 4-1 vote, a budget the county says 'maintains full capacity for the County's jails'. The Board is also the body whose Resolution 04-135 governs emergency population releases from those jails.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Multnomah County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
The county clerk runs the election in Multnomah County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from USA.gov and vote.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered