To testify on prison reform legislation
Newgaters’ trips to Salem stopped
By NAN HENDERSON
Of the Emerald
“Educational releases’’ in the
Oregon Corrections System
living in the Newgate Center, 1834
Potter Street, and attending the
University can stay out every
night until li p.m., receive 12
hour social passes “fairly easily’’
and are considered very minimal
security risks, University
graduate students working at the
Center report.
But recent instructions handed
down to all “house managers”
from Amos Reed, head of the
Oregon Corrections Division,
prohibit the Newgate manager
from granting the Newgate
students 12 hour passes to travel
to Salem to testify on prison
reform legislation.
Two weeks ago, before Reed’s
instructions, Newgaters did go to
Salem to testify an a bill which
permits prisoners to write un
censored letters — a right they do
not now have at the Oregon State
Penitentiary.
Bob “Lucky” Payola, director
of the recently formed Prisoners
Coalition and a Newgate
“educational releasee” waiting
50 days for his parole, said, “That
was the first time I had ever been
in a capital building in my life
and it was certainly
educational.”
He added that the legislative
committee “was very receptive
to our testimony” on the prison
reform legislation.
Payola, who has been working
with a group of Oregon lawyers
including University law
professors Herb Titus and Fred
Merril, says that the group has
been preparing prison reform
legislation “and planning and
outlining our testimony” for four
months.
The legislation also includes
measures to release prisoners
currently serving terms for
actions no longer considered
crimes under Oregon’s new
criminal code, loosen existing
visitation rules, prohibit using
inmates for medical experiments
against their will and provide
adequate medical care within
correctional institutions.
Though Reed’s new policy
concerning prisoner testimony
includes provisions allowing
legislative committee chairers to
request particular inmates to
appear before their committees,
Payola and other Newgaters feel
the policy is unfair.
The Prisoners Coalition
organizer, who teaches a 200
student SEARCH class on
American prisons, says that one
of the options for credit in his
class is to work on prison reform
legislation. But he feels that the
new policy will eliminate
Newgate students from the group
working in Salem.
Reed said in a Wednesday
interview that he issued the new
instructions because of a build-up
of requests within the corrections
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system from inmates wanting to
testify. He said he felt “the whole
thing was getting too loose,” and
therefore issued the instructions
which state “unless there is some
very good reason for testifying I
would prefer that they (the prison
managers) not issue the passes.”
A Portland lawyer working
with the prison reform legislation
group discovered the new policy
March 26 when he went to the
Oregon State Penitentiary to pick
up a prisoner to testify on the
uncensored communications bill.
Before that time “they had
been letting people out on a fairly
regular basis to testify,” the
lawyer reported. He said that on
March 26, however, he “was
informed that it was now a
corrections policy that inmates
weren’t going to be allowed to
testify.” The lawyer indicated
that there is some fear within the
corrections system that an in
mate misbehaving in any way in
the Capitol could cause “all of the
corrections bills to go out the
window.”
Reed indicated, however, that
there were other reasons for the
new policy, including:
— lack of funds to pay em
pioyees for escorting prisoners to
the Capitol.
— disruption of the prisoner’s
programs and his “other
responsibilities.”
— the opportunity which all
prisoners have to “file testimony
in writing” which “would serve
their purpose. There is not a
whole lot to be gained by having a
succession of a number of in
mates saying the same thing.”
The Portland attorney af
firmed Payola’s report “having
prisoners testify on these bills
was an integral part of the whole
plan (of pushing for prison
reform legislation). ” He added,
however, that “prisoners in
many other states” do not have
the right to testify in “any
legislative hearings.”
Sen. Keith Burbidge (D-Salem)
reported that Reed’s original
policy was modified after Bur
bidge announced in several
public meetings that he intended
to use his power as chairer of a
legislative committee to sub
poena prisoners to testify if
necessary, which precipitated a
private meeting between Reed,
Senate President Jason Boe (D
Reedsport) and other legislators.
“I think we reached an
agreement,” Burbidge said of the
meeting. That agreement, he
said, was that committee
chairers could get prisoners to
testify by issuing requests for
specific inmates in advance.
In the Wednesday interview,
Reed made no reference to the
negotiations which took place in
Boe’s office, but said he also
issued the new “instructions”
because “I wanted to develop a
system.” Reed affirmed Bur
bidge’s report that the system
which developed “boils down to if
a chairman of the committees
downtown wants someone to
testify they should let this be
known to me and on this basis we
will do the very best we can.”
Reed explained that he
developed the policy concerning
inmate testimony “with
forethought” rather than
“waiting until a problem blew up
in my face.”
The Corrections Director said
that inmates requesting to go
“down into the legislature is a
new issue” as few have requested
to go in previous years. Because
of this, Reed said, no policy
concerning inmate testimony has
ever been developed.
He added, however, that
general guidelines concerning
absence from an institution are
“spelled out by law.” Reed said
that law “requires the Correc
tions Division to maintain
adequate custody oi inmates at <
all times.”
He explained that he initially
developed the policy concerning
prisoner testimony to deal with
the situation that was
“developing with the institution
out here.”
But he observed that Newgate
“is part of this whole system”
and said therefore his policy also
covers the “inmates” there.
Reed categorized Newgate as
falling under the Oregon “work
release programs” though
graduate students working at the
Center and students within the
Center report less security exists
at Newgate than at any other
work-release center in the state.
“Under the law a person in
Newgate continues as an inmate,
legally he or she is an inmate and
we are required to maintain
adequate custody,” Reed said.
He continued, “It isn’t that they
can’t leave this base, but it can’t
just be by whim or somebody’s
generalized request.” Reed said
that each pass given to “in
mates” at Newgate is given
“according to its own individual
merits. And no way am I going to
give a blanket approval for any
or all Newgaters to come up and
roam around the legislature.”
Payola reported that March 29,
after he learned of Reed’s in
structions to Newgate House
Manager Curtis Benefiel, “I
wrote out three requests for
National Student V—
Exchange
Exchange to the following
Universities and pay in-state tuition:
Openings
Illinois State University 6
Ohio State University 4
University of Alabama 1
Qualifications: You must be a Freshman or
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apply.
Apply by 4:00 pm, Wed April ll
International Education Center
Room 319 EMU x 3721
passes . . . for Friday, Saturday
and Sunday.
“The Saturday and Sunday
passes were social for me to goto
Portland and visit my folks. The
third pass for Friday was to go to
the state capitol for the purposes
of attending committee
hearings,’’ Payola said. He said
the Saturday and Sunday passes
were granted, but “Benefiel told
me, now Lucky you know I have
got my orders and I can’t grant
you this (the Friday pass).”
Payola said that he did not
attend the Friday hearing
“because if I tried anyway I
would have been considered an
escapee.”
Benefiel, when questioned, said
that he could not comment on the
issue.
Payola indicated that he will
(Continued on Page 14)
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