MEDFORD, Ore. (Dec 17, 2025) — Jackson County District Attorney Patrick Green announced that the Oregon Department of Corrections has reversed a sentencing credit policy after it led to the unlawful early release of 36 offenders statewide, including 12 from Jackson County.
The reversal follows months of pressure from the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office, working with leaders across Oregon, after DOC applied credit for time served to each count in cases involving consecutive sentences rather than once to the total sentence. The approach, adopted after DOC’s interpretation of a July Oregon Supreme Court ruling in State ex rel. Torres-Lopez v. Fahrion, dramatically shortened prison terms and resulted in releases without prior notice to courts, prosecutors or victims.
Green said the policy ran counter to the intent of sentencing courts, particularly in cases where consecutive sentences are imposed to reflect punishment for separate crimes. In a Sept. 26, 2025, letter to DOC Director Michael Reese, Green argued the interpretation was a misreading of the high court’s decision and “clearly absurd.” When DOC leadership did not act, Green filed a contempt of court action against the agency, its director and the administrator of the Offender Sentence Computation Unit.
The contempt filing focused on the early release of Joaquin Cowart, who was convicted in Jackson County Circuit Court of four counts of sexually abusing a child and sentenced to four consecutive 36-month terms, totaling 12 years. His original release date was Sept. 11, 2029. Under DOC’s credit calculation, 1,394 days of time served were applied to each count, shifting his release date to June 3, 2021 — just 10 days after sentencing. DOC released Cowart on Sept. 15, 2025, without notifying the district attorney’s office, the court or the victim.
The same policy error led to the early release of 35 other offenders statewide between July and September who were serving consecutive sentences. Eleven of those cases were from Jackson County, including offenders convicted of DUII-related crimes injuring children, sexual abuse, domestic violence-related witness tampering, burglary and property crimes.
In mid-November, after the contempt action was filed, DOC reversed its position for consecutive sentences within the same case, agreeing that credit for time served should be applied only once to the total sentence. As a result, Cowart and six other Jackson County offenders were returned to DOC custody to complete their remaining prison terms.
Within the past two weeks, DOC extended the correction to cases involving multiple convictions across different files, confirming that credit for time served would again be applied only once. That change led to five additional Jackson County offenders being returned to prison.
“This reversal restores integrity to sentencing in Oregon and is a step back in the right direction to protecting victims and our communities from dangerous offenders,” Green said in a statement. “DOC’s error unnecessarily jeopardized public safety and re-traumatized crime victims who deserve better from a system that claims it is there to protect them. While I am grateful that DOC has now fully corrected course, I will continue to advocate for a full accounting of what led to this mistake and safeguards in the law to ensure it can never happen again.”
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