Skip to main content
A medical aide accused of sneaking contraband into a Portland jail has been fired, WW has learned.
Trisha Gibson, a certified medication aide working in Multnomah County jails, was under criminal investigation for allegedly sneaking in contraband, WW reported last November. Gibson hotly denied the allegations when reached by WW at the time.
Now, however, the investigation has wrapped up. Gibson won’t face criminal charges, but she’s lost her job. She was fired on March 14 for “egregious policy violations,” a county spokesman says.
Multnomah County jails are under intense scrutiny following an unprecedented series of seven inmate deaths last year—followed by the surfacing of allegations that deputies had colluded with street gangs to police dorms at the downtown Portland jail. The investigation into Gibson came during a subsequent crackdown by administrators.
But what exactly Gibson’s “egregious” behavior was, and the nature of the contraband, remains a mystery. Here’s what we pieced together from the public record:
Drugs are being smuggled into the county’s jails left and right—and staff has been unable to stop it.
In the wake of last year’s deaths, several of which were overdoses, jail officials began cracking down on smuggled drugs. Administrators reintroduced strip searches, then beefed up deputies’ training on use of the jails’ high-tech X-ray scanner.
But the problem hasn’t gone away. Last summer, officials began keeping a log of illicit drugs found in housing dorms at the county’s two jails. Lawyers, in the midst of litigating a 2019 inmate death, obtained it: There were 21 entries in the log as of Jan. 15.
“There are drugs in our facilities, yes,” Chief Deputy Stephen Reardon admitted in a recent disposition, according to an April 5 legal filing.
Inmates say jail staff is part of the problem.
The most shocking allegation in a 142-page Oregon State Police report released last month was that jail guards were facilitating assaults of inmates on behalf of a violent street gang (“What Happened in Hoover Jail,” WW, March 6). But that same report also included claims that staff was smuggling drugs.
One gang member described “a nurse named Tricia” who would hand out not only Suboxone, an opioid used to treat addiction, but also cannabis “in med cups.” She was paid through Cash App, he said. OSP investigators did not identify her in their report.
It’s not just drugs.
The Oregon State Police report describes a variety of other contraband items allegedly found in the jail. One popular item: electric razors, which inmates used both to cut hair and, combined with a pen, repurposed into tattoo guns.
One of the three corrections officers currently facing discipline for his alleged collusion with the street gang, Gustavo Valdovinos, was previously suspended for two days in December 2019 after he was caught bringing in his “personal hair clippers” for inmates to use.