An audit of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office could not conclude whether county jails disproportionately use force against black inmates, according to its author.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office released the audit of its use of force against jail inmates on Wednesday. Sheriff Mike Reese commissioned the audit in part as a response to an internal report last year that found corrections officers disproportionately used force against black inmates.
The 2015 report showed that black inmates comprise 20 percent of the county’s jail population but they make up 40 percent of the inmates who are tased or pepper sprayed.
The audit released Wednesday did not directly address those statistics. The consulting firm that authored the audit said it found insufficient data to conclude whether there are racial disparities in the use of force against black jail inmates in Multnomah County.
The audit was otherwise generally positive about use of force rates in Multnomah County jails, finding that corrections officers use force less than once a day on average. The audit did recommend that the MCSO clarify its use of force policy and offer additional training for corrections officers to further reduce the use of force, however.
Each year, the Multnomah County Department of Corrections processes about 38,000 arrested people and reports about 300 use of force incidents.
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