1. United States
2. Ore.
3. Letter

I am writing to you as your constituent with urgent concern about a situation that I believe demands immediate attention from Oregon's elected officials. An Oregon state prisoner named Malik Muhammad has, as of March 30, 2026, effectively disappeared from public record, and the Oregon Department of Corrections is refusing to account for his whereabouts. Muhammad, who is serving a 10-year sentence at Oregon State Prison, vanished from the prison messaging system and Oregon's inmate search database last Monday. Since then, his family and supporters have made dozens of calls to EOCI, OSP, and multiple ODOC offices. The only explanation offered by the Office of Population Management is that Muhammad has been moved to a "confidential location." No further information has been provided. His mother has been given the same non-answer. No federal agency, including the Bureau of Prisons, has acknowledged taking custody. This is not a clerical error. People in state custody do not simply vanish from public databases. Transfers generate paper trails. Locations are logged. None of that appears to have happened here, or if it has, none of it is being disclosed. I want to be clear about the context: Muhammad had already spent more than 250 days in solitary confinement in 2024 alone, a practice the United Nations recognizes as torture when it exceeds 15 consecutive days. He was last known to be in solitary confinement before his disappearance. His family has not been able to speak with him. His supporters do not know whether he is safe, or even alive. Under international human rights standards, the pattern being described, detention followed by refusal to disclose a prisoner's fate or whereabouts, is consistent with the definition of enforced disappearance. That term is not one I use lightly. But when a state agency refuses to confirm a prisoner's location to his own family, refuses to provide any verifiable information, and removes him from public-facing systems, the word fits. ODOC is a state agency that operates with Oregon public funds and answers to Oregon's elected officials. That means it answers, ultimately, to you. I am asking you to take the following actions: 1. Contact the Oregon Department of Corrections directly and demand a full accounting of Malik Muhammad's current location, condition, and the legal basis for any "confidential placement." 2. Use your oversight authority to investigate whether ODOC's actions in this case comply with Oregon law and basic due process standards. 3. Publicly call for transparency from ODOC regarding this case. A prisoner's family has the right to know where their loved one is being held. That is not a political position. It is a basic human rights standard, and it is one that Oregon's legislature has both the authority and the responsibility to uphold. I urge you to act on this immediately.