State’s juvenile justice system gets new leader following scrutiny over agency abuse investigations

Published 6:41 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

Gov. Tina Kotek nominated Michael Tessean, most recently director of the Colorado State Board of Parole, to lead the Oregon Youth Authority after firing its former leader

Oregon’s juvenile justice system has a new leader following Gov. Tina Kotek’s firing of its former director over a backlog of investigations into sexual abuse at the state youth correctional facilities.

Kotek announced Wednesday that Michael Tessean, most recently the director of the Colorado State Board of Parole, will take over as director of the Oregon Youth Authority beginning Aug. 18, pending Senate confirmation.

The agency has been run since March by interim director Jana McLellan following the firing of longtime director Joe O’Leary after reporting from The Oregonian/OregonLive revealed the agency had failed to investigate thousands of abuse complaints from formerly incarcerated individuals. McLellan will officially retire at the end of September, according to the news release.

At least 39 men who were formerly incarcerated at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility for boys in Woodburn have filed civil lawsuits alleging they were abused by the facility’s chief doctor between 2002 and 2016. Several more lawsuits filed on July 24 accuse three more former Oregon Youth Authority staff members of sexually abusing juvenile prisoners.

“The agency has complex challenges to address and a responsibility to Oregon to meet those challenges at the highest level of transparency and accountability,” Kotek said in a statement. “I welcome Michael Tessean to the director position and am confident that his years of experience in criminal justice and behavioral health will advance the organizational and cultural changes needed to usher forward a new chapter at OYA.”

Tessean, who will earn more than $236,000 annually, will manage more than 970 employees at the agency, and a two-year, $551 million budget. The agency runs nine locked facilities overseeing roughly 900 Oregonians between 12 and 24 years old who have committed very serious crimes before turning 18, or who need more services than their county-level juvenile justice programs can provide.

Tessean said he would build trust through transparency and accountability at the agency.

“Together, we can create a youth justice system rooted in humanity, driven by data, and powered by the belief that people — especially young people — can grow, change, and thrive,” he said in a statement.

Tessean earned a master’s degree in business administration from the online Jack Welch Management Institute and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Colorado State University.

He spent the bulk of his career in the Colorado corrections system as a parole officer and then as a courts coordinator, managing programs under the Adult Drug Court, Adult Mental Health Court, Veterans Treatment Court and Truancy Court for people who have become heavily involved in the criminal justice system. He worked for four and a half years at the Colorado Department of Human Services, overseeing both the Office of Behavioral Health and the Division of Youth Services, before joining the state parole board.