The ECOI was converted primarily in response to prison overcrowding, the need for jobs in rural eastern Oregon, and the national trend toward the deinstitutionalization of mental facilities. In 1982, the Oregon Corrections Division received a preliminary report from an architect on proposed correctional facility locations. Pendleton was selected from seven possible sites, despite some political maneuvering. The largest employer in the Pendleton community, a State institution for the mentally ill, was closing. In order to save jobs, local and State politicians argued for the medium-security prison to solve the area's economic problems. The case of Pendleton demonstrates that the construction of new prisons requires community input from the outset. 24 references and 2 notes