Objectives, Scope, & Methodology

The objectives of this audit were to provide information to county community members: 

  • about the conditions people experience when they were incarcerated in county jails
  • who was in our county jails

To accomplish these objectives we:

  • Interviewed over 40 people, including Sheriff’s Office staff, county staff, public defenders, and former adults in custody
  • Toured the jails
  • Surveyed adults in custody, with 567 adults in custody completing the survey (response rate of 74%)
  • Conducted an in-depth literature review
  • Reviewed the Sheriff’s Office training materials
  • Received training from the Los Angeles Police Department on how to audit law enforcement
  • Attended the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement online conference
  • Received data from Multnomah County Behavioral Health Decision Support Unit to determine which adults in custody had also received intensive mental health services from the county.
  • Analyzed personnel and jail data from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2021 from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

For this audit, we analyzed personnel and jail data from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2021 from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. By using extensive completeness checks and data verification, our office has determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report.

We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings, and conclusions based on our audit objective. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Audit Staff

Nicole Dewees, CIA, Principal Auditor

Mark Ulanowicz, CIA, Principal Auditor

Go to report main page.