The Civil Rights Crisis Inside Oregon's State Psychiatric Hospital
A 25-year-old man spent the last seven months of his life locked alone in a bare rubber-walled room, restrained to a bed by his wrists and ankles, covered in filth, with no active treatment plan and no meaningful human contact. His name was Kenneth Hass. He died on March 18, 2025, on the floor of a seclusion room at the Oregon State Hospital, not from the mental illness that brought him there, but from drinking too much water while the staff responsible for monitoring him looked away.
His story is not just a tragedy. It is a documented, preventable pattern of civil rights violations carried out inside Oregon’s state-run institution, and it should never have been allowed to happen.
What Happened to Kenneth Hass
Kenneth Hass arrived at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem in 2022, committed by a judge after being found incompetent to stand trial on minor charges stemming from a confrontation with police. His family described him as gentle and funny — a talented artist who struggled with addiction and eventually developed full-blown schizophrenia in his early 20s.
Like most patients at the hospital, Hass initially had a room on a unit where patients could move around, share common spaces, go outside, and participate in work programs. But beginning in July 2024, he was placed in a seclusion room — one of 43 bare, rubber-walled cells used to isolate patients — and he would remain there for the better part of seven months.
According to an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Hass was frequently naked and restrained. He had no active psychology interventions. His care plan had not been updated in three months. He was moved to a freshly sanitized room only once every two weeks. His family was sometimes turned away when they came to visit. Staff later told investigators that they had joked among themselves that Hass was going to die at the hospital.
He did.
A Systemic Failure, Not an Isolated Incident
What makes Hass' case more than just an individual tragedy is the scale of what investigators found behind it.
In 2024, the Oregon State Hospital ranked ninth out of nearly 1,400 inpatient psychiatric facilities nationwide in its rate of seclusion use, according to federal data analyzed by The Oregonian/OregonLive. That same year, Oregon held psychiatric patients in seclusion at the highest rate of any state in the country. In 2024 alone, 177 unique patients were secluded for more than 24 hours at least once. Just eight patients accounted for 30% of the hospital's total seclusion hours.
Federal seclusion standards exist for a reason. Seclusion is meant to be brief, generally no more than four hours, and used only as a last resort to prevent immediate physical harm. Research is unambiguous: extended isolation causes or worsens the very symptoms it is meant to manage. Studies document hallucinations, psychosis, emotional dysregulation, panic attacks, and what researchers describe as "everything from sleep disruptions to physical symptoms like a racing heart" after only a few days of isolation. In people already living with serious mental illness, the harm is even more acute.
Dr. Stuart Grassian, a former Harvard Medical School faculty member and expert on seclusion, called the Oregon State Hospital's numbers "astonishing" and said prolonged seclusion is "generally a red flag that there hasn't been adequate thought and treatment offered." Dr. Stephanie Knight, head of psychiatry at the University of Maryland Medical Center, put it plainly: "Seclusion in any clinical environment is the intervention of last resort."
Yet at the Oregon State Hospital, seclusion had become routine — so routine that staff stopped calling it seclusion. Internal training materials and medical records referred to seclusion rooms as "side rooms," a sanitizing of language that federal investigators later found may have "eliminated the stigma" and "downplayed the significance of patients' rights to be free from seclusion."
When Staff Raised Alarms, Nothing Happened
Perhaps the most damning aspect of this story is not that the abuse occurred — it is that people inside the hospital knew it was wrong and said so, and were ignored.
A nurse manager told investigators she became so emotional in medical staff meetings arguing against the long seclusions that she raised her voice. Her concerns were acknowledged. Nothing changed. Another nurse filed a formal complaint with the Oregon Health Authority specifically about Hass' treatment. Nine days later, he was dead.
One of Hass' treating psychiatrists, Dr. James Peykanu, who was the highest-paid state employee in Oregon during the fiscal year that included Hass' death, earning $796,239, was reported by three colleagues to have said he kept a patient in prolonged seclusion "to teach him a lesson." The complaint was routed to an internal ethics office. No substantiated investigative report naming him was ever produced. He remains employed at the hospital today. So do the three other psychiatrists who signed off on continuing Hass' seclusion.
The Oregon Health Authority's own director said she was not aware of the surge in seclusions until after Hass died. Governor Kotek’s office said the same. Top hospital leadership had simply failed to report upward what was happening in those 43 rubber-walled rooms.
"The lack of reporting and overall accountability by (Oregon State Hospital) leadership was unacceptable," a state spokesperson later said.
The Legal Framework: Patients in Confinement Have Rights
Civil commitment to a psychiatric institution does not strip a person of their constitutional rights. Involuntarily committed patients — like those found incompetent to stand trial, or held under civil orders — retain the right to adequate medical care, the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, and the right not to be subjected to conditions that amount to punishment without due process.
The right to adequate care for confined individuals flows from the Fourteenth Amendment's due process protections. Courts have long held that the government has an obligation to provide reasonably safe conditions of confinement, reasonable care, and treatment to those it incarcerates or involuntarily commits. The Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment also informs standards for those in state custody.
When a state institution subjects a patient to seven months of near-continuous isolation — with no active treatment plan, in conditions its own staff described as unsanitary and dangerous — that is not a medical decision. It is a civil rights violation.
Federal regulations governing seclusion in psychiatric facilities receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding are explicit: any seclusion beyond 24 hours requires executive-level review and careful documentation of justification. Those regulations exist precisely because the potential for harm is so well established. Circumventing them, as the Oregon State Hospital appears to have done at scale, exposes patients to known and foreseeable harm. When that harm results in death or serious injury, families may have legal recourse.
Sierra Hass, Kenneth's sister and legal guardian, has announced plans to sue the state for her brother's wrongful death. Her lawsuit will not bring Kenny back. But it may force the kind of structural accountability that internal complaints, nurse manager meetings, and regulatory audits have so far failed to deliver.
What This Means for Families of those Committed:
If you have a loved one confined in a psychiatric facility — whether under a civil commitment order, a competency hold, or any other form of involuntary treatment — they are entitled to:
Humane conditions of confinement, including basic sanitation, appropriate clothing, and access to fresh air
An active, individualized treatment plan
Freedom from seclusion or restraint except in genuine emergencies, and only for the shortest time necessary
Regular contact with family members unless a clinical determination is made and documented
Meaningful access to medical and psychological care
The right to have complaints taken seriously by both the institution and the state oversight agency
If those rights are being violated, that is not something families have to accept as the cost of treatment. It is something that can and should be challenged.
Ross Law Is Here to Help
At Ross Law, we represent individuals whose civil rights have been violated while in the custody of state institutions. This includes hospitals, jails, MacLaren Youth Correctional facility, and treatment facilities. We understand that the people harmed by institutional abuse are often among the most vulnerable: those living with serious mental illness, those who cannot easily speak for themselves, and families who trusted the state to provide care and were betrayed.
Kenneth Hass told his psychiatrist in one of his last coherent conversations: "This hospital is a toxic environment." He was right. And no one listened.
We believe in listening.
If you believe a loved one's rights have been violated while in state custody or institutional confinement, contact Ross Law at 503.224.1658 for a consultation.
Ross Law represents Oregonians in civil rights and wrongful death cases involving individuals harmed while in confinement. This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Contact an Oregon lawyer such as Jeremiah Ross to discuss the specific facts of your situation