What Is Close Street Supervision in Multnomah County?

Close Street Supervision is a pretrial release program run by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office that lets people who would otherwise sit in jail live in the community while their criminal case moves through court. Corrections deputies supervise participants, monitor compliance with the conditions a judge has ordered, and must notify the court immediately if someone breaks a rule.¹ CSS fills the space between unconditional release and full incarceration, and it’s one of the stepped options Oregon law gives judges before resorting to bail.

A quick clarification, because it causes confusion: the Department of Community Justice handles probation and post-prison supervision in Multnomah County, but CSS is not a DCJ program. It belongs to the Sheriff’s Office, the same agency that runs the Multnomah County Detention Center and the Inverness Jail.²

Who Ends Up on CSS

CSS is designed for defendants who would otherwise be ineligible for release from custody while awaiting trial.³ It is not the path for low-risk defendants who could walk out on their own recognizance. It’s for people whose charges or risk profile would normally keep them locked up, where a judge concludes intensive monitoring can safely substitute for a cell.

Oregon law walks judges through a stepped decision. A magistrate first considers release on personal recognizance. Only after finding that insufficient does the court move to conditional release under ORS 135.260, where CSS lives. Only after finding conditional release inadequate can the court require security.⁴ At each step, the judge must impose the least burdensome condition that still protects public safety and ensures the defendant comes back to court.

The factors driving that call fall into two groups under ORS 135.230. Primary criteria cover public safety, the nature of the charge, criminal history, and any past failures to appear. Secondary criteria look at employment, family, residential stability, and community ties.⁵ Defense counsel can advocate for CSS placement, but the presiding judge decides.

Multnomah County uses the Public Safety Assessment to score the likelihood of a new offense and the likelihood of appearing for court.⁶ That score, combined with the charge and the defendant’s circumstances, helps shape where someone lands: basic conditional release, CSS, or continued custody.

Charges That Keep You Out

Measure 11, codified in ORS Chapter 137, imposes mandatory minimum prison sentences for serious person crimes and now covers twenty-one offenses, including murder, rape, robbery, and assault.⁷ Defendants facing Measure 11 charges are generally excluded from community-based release options like CSS.

If You Have an ICE Detainer

Non-citizens with an active ICE detainer face a trap worth naming. An ICE detainer is a request asking a jail to hold someone so Immigration and Customs Enforcement can take custody. Even when a judge grants pretrial release, ICE may pick the person up at the jail door, which can lead to immigration detention and removal proceedings. Oregon limits local cooperation with detainers, and federal law doesn’t require jails to honor them, but the risk is real. Pursuing CSS when a detainer is on file may not be in the defendant’s interest, and that conversation belongs with defense counsel before anyone asks the court for release.

What You’ll Have to Do on CSS

Every defendant released before trial in Oregon agrees to the baseline: appear for all court dates, obey court orders, stay in the state unless a judge says otherwise, and report any change of address or phone number.⁸ CSS layers additional conditions on top under ORS 135.260.

Specific add-ons a judge can impose include:

Supervision by a designated person or organization. For CSS, that’s a corrections deputy who monitors you and must tell the court immediately if you breach any condition.
Geographic and activity restrictions. The court can regulate where you go, who you associate with, and where you live, up to confining you to your residence.
Work release, meaning you may be out of custody only during working hours.
No-contact orders, which are mandatory in domestic violence cases.

ORS 135.260 also contains a catch-all allowing any other reasonable restriction aimed at ensuring your appearance in court.⁹

Check-Ins

Regular face-to-face meetings with your supervising deputy are the backbone of CSS. You’ll give updates on employment, housing, and compliance with treatment or community service. Expect to document those claims with pay stubs, signed service logs, and attendance records.¹⁰ The system runs on documented proof, not good intentions. If your schedule changes or you need to move, tell your deputy before the change, not after.

Drug Testing and Substance Rules

Courts routinely order CSS participants to abstain from alcohol and controlled substances and submit to random testing, authority that comes from ORS 135.260.¹¹ One trap: Oregon allows recreational marijuana, but a judge can still prohibit it as a release condition. A court-ordered ban on controlled substances covers all of them, regardless of what state law permits for the public. If you use medical marijuana, talk to your physician and your attorney about federally permissible alternatives before assuming your card gives you an exemption.

GPS Monitoring

To enforce geographic restrictions, the court may order electronic monitoring such as a GPS ankle device. Oregon law allows this provided it still lets you keep employment and attend to family needs while enforcing your conditions.¹¹ The device must stay charged at all times. A dead battery triggers an alert that looks identical to an attempt to flee, and deputies treat it that way. Whether Multnomah County charges a daily fee for GPS equipment is worth asking your attorney or supervising deputy directly.

No-Contact Orders

Defendants charged with sex crimes, domestic violence, or bias crimes face automatic no-contact orders. Under ORS 135.247, a release assistance officer must include a no-contact provision prohibiting the defendant from contacting the victim, directly or through someone else. The court continues or reissues that order at arraignment.¹² For domestic violence charges, ORS 135.260 independently requires a no-contact order as part of conditional release.⁹

Violating that order is the fastest way off CSS. If a victim reports threats or intimidation, the district attorney notifies the court, which must issue an order to show cause why release should not be revoked. If the court finds the victim was threatened or intimidated, revocation is mandatory and bail is set at an amount meant to ensure safety.¹¹ No second chances here.

What Happens If You Violate a Condition

Oregon law draws a hard line between two kinds of violations, and the consequences are not close.

If the violation is a new criminal offense, the court must take the defendant back into custody and hold them pending trial, with no option for release. The statute leaves no room for discretion.¹¹ Any arrest, even on a minor charge, effectively ends CSS.

If the violation doesn’t involve a new crime (a missed check-in, a failed drug test, a dead GPS battery), the court has more room. It may order the defendant back into custody and hold them pending trial, or it may issue a new release decision with modified conditions.¹¹ This is where context matters. A single missed phone check-in that the defendant self-reported and corrected is a different situation than repeated failed drug tests or a pattern of missed curfews.

Warrants and Contempt

Under ORS 135.280 the court can issue a warrant for arrest when a defendant fails to comply with any condition.¹¹ Because the supervising deputy must notify the court immediately of any breach, violations rarely go unreported for long.⁹ On top of that, a defendant who knowingly breaches any condition imposed under ORS 135.260 can be punished for contempt of court under ORS 135.290. One violation can create two problems.

Defending Against a Violation

Not every slip-up carries equal weight, and how your attorney frames the situation matters. For non-criminal violations, courts often weigh context: Did you act in good faith? Was the problem promptly corrected? Is there an explanation that doesn’t suggest flight risk or danger to the public? A missed check-in explained by a medical emergency and a next-morning phone call is a very different record from going dark for a week. A consistent compliance history gives counsel something concrete to argue when revocation is on the table.

Does Time on CSS Count Toward a Sentence?

Generally, no. Time spent on pretrial supervision in the community, including time wearing a GPS monitor, does not count as time served toward a prison sentence. Under federal law, credit applies only to time in official detention, meaning actual custody of the government. Courts have consistently held that home confinement and electronic monitoring during pretrial release fall outside that definition, and Oregon’s approach is similar. Six months on CSS followed by a prison sentence typically does not shorten that sentence by six months. Time spent physically in jail before release to CSS does count.

1
Multnomah County. Adult Supervision in Multnomah County
2
Multnomah County. Background
3
Multnomah County. Program #60445B – Restore – Close Street
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 135.245 – Release Decision
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Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 135.230 – Definitions for 135.230 to 135.290
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Multnomah County. Pretrial Monitoring Background and Future Planning
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Oregon State Legislature. Background Brief on Measure 11
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Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 135.250 – General Conditions of Release Agreement
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Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 135.260 – Conditional Release
10
Justice System Partners. Multnomah County Pretrial System Assessment
11
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 135 – Arraignment and Pretrial Provisions
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Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 135.247 – Order Prohibiting Contact With Victim of Sex Crime