Locked up and alone: Sharp rise in Oregon State Hospital’s seclusion of patients pushed state to worst-in-nation status
As Kenneth Hass slid into his seventh month locked alone in a small room at the Oregon State Hospital last year, he no longer resembled the witty young man his sister and some nurses remembered.
Covered in grime, including his own feces, Hass, 25, frequently removed his clothes and talked of angels and demons. He’d developed a pattern of climbing onto the sink counter and diving headfirst onto the floor. That’s when he wasn’t tied to a bed.
“This constant cycle of seclusion and restraint would be all that Kenneth would know of humanity,” said one staff member who cared directly for Hass and asked for anonymity to talk about a patient. “It became a running joke among burnt out staff that Kenneth was going to die at the hospital.”
And on March 18, 2025, Hass did die. Federal investigators later reviewed video records of his death. They reported that after hours of drinking copious amounts of water, Hass tipped backward off the seclusion room toilet and fell to the floor, seizing and puking. He stopped breathing a few minutes later.
Hass’ death unleashed a reckoning at the state’s large public psychiatric hospital, which quickly changed many of its practices and leaders. But the full scope of the institution’s problematic use of seclusion was not made public…
Photos by Beth Nakamura
