Oregon lawmakers this week had just a few questions for the Oregon Department of Corrections executive director during the agency’s first hearing of the legislative session.

None of them were about the well-documented problems with prison health care, including the recent leaves of the department’s top two administrators who manage medical care for the state’s estimated 12,000 prisoners.

Director Mike Reese also avoided the topic.

Reese on Tuesday offered the House and Senate Judiciary committees a broad overview of the prison system he has led for more than a year, identifying three “main challenges” facing the agency.

He called security and healthcare staffing the “biggest and most difficult challenge,” followed by the complex medical, mental health and post-prison housing needs of prisoners and IT “so antiquated that we no longer have developers that can work on that system.”

Reese also told lawmakers that the Oregon State Penitentiary is woefully outdated, comparing the state’s oldest prison to the infamous and now-shuttered Alcatraz.

The prison health system, meanwhile, struggles to adequately serve Oregon’s prisoners — challenges extensively documented in court filings.

Oregon last year paid a record-breaking $3.5 million to the family of a prisoner who died after court records say his heart attack symptoms went untreated at the Oregon State Penitentiary.

This month a Circuit Court judge ordered the state to immediately free a prisoner suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain after finding the Department of Corrections in contempt for “willfully and intentionally failing” to address the man’s conditions.

Reese did not touch on those developments during his 38-minute presentation.

And neither did committee members, who questioned Reese about the cost of prisoner phone calls to family members, wages for prisoner jobs and contraband in prisons.

The Oregonian/OregonLive emailed each member of both committees to ask why they did not pose any questions to Reese regarding prison medical care.

Three responded.

Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, described Reese’s presentation as an initial look at the agency. He said in an email that it was “necessarily limited in time because of the committee schedule.” He said he plans to follow up directly with the agency on a “range of issues affecting the department,” including health care.

Sen. Anthony Broadman, D-Bend, called Tuesday’s hearings the start of “the work ahead on public safety this year.” He said the Department of Corrections budget had more than $458 million earmarked for health services.

“Oregon has a duty to see that those funds are spent responsibly and that people in custody get adequate medical care,” he said in an email. “As the legislative session unfolds, I will stay focused on accountability in all government programs, including health care at state prisons.”

In an email, Sen. Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, referred questions to the chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.

“You asked questions that deserve answers,” McLane said. “I hope the Chairs will answer your questions.

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, chairs the senate committee; Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, chairs the house committee. Kropf did not attend the committee meeting.

Prozanski said this week’s hearing was intended to serve as an introduction to the agency. He doesn’t plan to hold a hearing this session focused specifically on prison medical care; lawmakers don’t have time given their focus on moving bills through the session, he said.

“At this moment in time, I’ve got other tasks I need to get done for the assembly to move stuff forward,” he said.

A Department of Corrections spokesperson said Thursday that Reese was asked specifically to address new committee members and to provide “a general overview” of the agency.

“The director clarified at the beginning that he was not going to be able to go deep into any topic but would follow-up with committee members on their topics of interest,” said Amber Campbell, a corrections spokesperson.

Michael LaSeur, the former prisoner who was released after Senior Circuit Judge Patricia A. Sullivan found the state in contempt, said lawmakers should hear directly from prisoners about the care they receive behind bars.

“Honestly, they should be asking about the medical care, about the mental health care and they need to talk to people that are in there,” he said. He speculated that the Department of Corrections isn’t likely to volunteer the information.

“They’re going to say, ‘Oh, well, we have limited resources or we try our best,” he said.

LaSeur’s lawyer, Tara Herivel, who has frequently challenged the state on the quality and accessibility of medical care in prison, said lawmakers “have a duty” to press the agency for answers.

“Folks are coming out of prison … and they are more broken and more harmed, physically and psychologically, coming back into the community because of being subjected to medical gross negligence,” she said. “That’s something we’re all going to pay the cost of.”