Oregon foster care officials, lawmaker at odds over housing kids in converted juvenile jails

Oregon child welfare officials got a chance Thursday to push back against concerns raised in news reports and by advocates for foster children that the state is caring for some of those children in repurposed juvenile jails.

“I wanted to thank you for titling this presentation ‘refurbished juvenile correctional facilities’ because it has been reported inaccurately we put our kids in jail cells,” Department of Human Services director Fariborz Pakseresht told lawmakers. “We never put any (foster) child in a jail cell.”

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