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Services for Youth

Youth at JWTP learn and practice skills to help them live as independent adults. JWTP focuses on:

  • continued treatment, including treatment for substance use;
  • social skill-building;
  • education and vocational training; 
  • exposure to the community through work, service projects, treatment groups, school, and healthy activities; and
  • other skills for transitioning back to the community, including how to rent housing, and how to make and keep a budget.

Not all treatment programs are offered at every OYA facility. However, all facilities do offer an array of treatment to address developmental needs and risks related to criminal behavior.

Each youth’s treatment team selects the most appropriate combination of treatment programs based on the youth’s needs and personal characteristics.​

Elements of treatment for OYA youth include:
  • Addressing needs that are likely to lead to criminal behavior
  • Impact of the crime on the victim and the community
  • Culturally responsive services
  • Engaging families​
  • Addressing mental health or trauma
  • Addressing substance use - JWTP is ​a certified substance use treatment site​
  • Teaching life and social skills​
  • Providing education and vocational training
  • Providing medical services
Learn more on the Treatment for OYA Youth page​, or by contacting the camp counselor.​​

A nurse measuring the blood pressure of a youth
While your youth is with Oregon Youth Authority, we will make sure their needs are met. This includes medical care, dental care, and mental health care they need.

Oak Creek Youth Correctional Facility, located next to JWTP, has a medical clinic with nurses, dentists, a medical doctor, psychiatrists, and psychologists.

Mental health services are provided on site. We also have contracts with health care providers in the community for services that are medically necessary that we cannot provide in our clinic. Our facilities only provide medical services that are medically necessary. Youth also receive regular health education information.

Payment for Medical Services
OYA pays for all necessary medical services for all youth in our correctional facilities. Youth are not eligible to receive Oregon Health Plan benefits while they are in OYA facilities. Learn more about paying for medical services.
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Private Health Insurance
If you already have private health insurance for your youth, you should keep it, and let the facility know about it. If your youth needs emergency or specialty care somewhere outside of our facilities, your insurance could help pay for this.

Nutrition and Fitness
Our youth correctional facilities and transition facilities provide youth with regular healthy meals and recreation programs, including sports and other physical activities. We do not allow our youth to have food provided by their families.

Getting Medical Information About Your Youth
OYA health service follows HIPAA privacy guidelines . We are not allowed to release medical information about youth in our custody without a signed release. More information is available on our Medical Records page.
  • Youth who are 14 and younger must have a release of information signed by their facility's superintendent or director.
  • Youth who are 15 and older must sign a release of information form before we can share their medical information.
If your youth is in an OYA facility and you want updates about their medical care, please contact their case coordinator, living unit manager or camp counselor. They can help you get the information you need.


Two young women, shown from behind, watching a performance from a Mexican dance group

​​To successfully fulfill OYA’s mission, we must ensure that we effectively meet the needs of all youth and communities, especially those who are marginalized.

OYA works to provide culturally appropriate services at all our facilities, both for youth who identify as part of marginalized groups, and for all our youth to learn to understand and respect other cultures.

Many, but not all, of these services are led by our Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations (OIIR). JWTP youth also have the opportunity to attend cultural events in the community at local colleges.

We provide services to meet the needs of many groups, including:

  • African American
  • Asian and Pacific Islander
  • Hispanic and Latinx
  • LGBTQ+
  • Native American

We also provide a free tattoo removal program for any OYA youth wishing to get rid of gang-related, sex trafficking-related, or other anti-social tattoos.

To learn more about our cultural services, contact:

Samantha Batista
503-680-6164
samantha.batista@oya.oregon.gov​​

Young female volleyball players in a team huddle with their coach

​JWTP offers multiple enrichment programs — both on campus and out in the community — ​to help youth stay healthy, learn how to interact positively with others, and build skills that will help them when they return to the community.

Programs include:

  • Recreation and sports
  • Writing, photography, and other arts
  • Cultural events
  • Activities that give back to the community​