Legislature spouts off over Meadowfoam
By TOM JACKSON
Of the Emerald
SALEM — Somewhere in the Willamette
Valley, a grass seed grower is pacing Ns
land and wondering whether or not the
Legislature is going to let him bum his fields
tNs summer.
MeanwNIe, a harpooner stands in the
bow of a whaling sNp ready to strike death
in the heart of a whale.
What these two tNngs have in common is
opposition from environmental groups who
want to see an end to the killing of a declin
ing whale population and a reduction in air
pollution resulting from open field burning.
But they have more than that in common:
a weed called meadowfoam which grows
wild in Oregon. Meadowfoam produces an
oil with characteristics similar to sperm
whale oil, which is used in automotive
transmission fluid, cosmetics and other oil
products.
It can also be grown in the Willamette
Valley — without requiring open field bum
ing. Rep. Nancy Fadeley, D-Eugene, has
introduced a bill which allows tax exemp
tions to fanners who grow meadowfoam.
Fadeley, a long-time opponent of field burn
ing, calls meadowfoam “one of the most
exciting alternatives to grass seed grow
ing.”
But Fadeley says the bill may be prema
ture because it may take from two to five
years to perfect the plant. Scientists at
Oregon State University are now testing the
weed and cross-breeding it to develop a
strain which may be suitable for mass culti
vation.
Sperm whale oil has not been imported
into this country since 1971 because the
whales are on the endangered species list.
Stockpiles of the oil are expected to run out
this year.
So in the near future, Oregon farmers
may have a comer on a lucrative foreign
and domestic trade in meadowfoam oil. It
may not be a panacea but it may well help
solve two environmental concerns with one
blow.
Corrections bill could reduce custody costs
By MARY BETH BOWEN
Of the Emerald
A legislative program that could
reduce the overcrowding in
Oregon’s prisons by 400 during
the next biennium, provide a more
rehabilitative environment for in
mates sentenced to five years or
less and save Oregon the cost of
building a new $50 million prison,
is up for approval by the Full Joint
Ways and Means Committee next
Friday.
Thq Community Corrections
Act, sponsored by Gov. Bob
Straub, would appropriate almost
$14 million to allow counties to
upgrade their own county correc
tional services, and build correc
tional facilities.
The intent of the program is to
keep Class C felons—defined as
persons sentenced to five years or
less — under supervised custody
in their own communities, rather
than sending them to already
crowded prisons in Salem.
Straub contends that incar
cerating inmates who have com
mitted minor, non-violent crimes is
often self defeating, because the
inmates lose touch with their
families, friends and job. This
alienation makes it difficult to rein
tegrate back into society.
Straub adds that if the state
doesn’t act to reduce the over
crowding in its prisons the alterna
tive would be building a new $50
million maximum security prison.
SB 354, is designed to reduce
Oregon's prison population in two
ways: by improving the parole and
probation supervision at the
community level (thus reducing
the number erf parole and proba
tion revokees who are sent to
prison) and by keeping inmates in
their own community.
Under the bill, $7.2 million
would be appropriated to all coun
ties to upgrade and establish new
parole/probation services, such
as education and job training, and
psychiatric counseling. The funds
would be divvied up in proportion
to the number of felony cases
each county had during the past
two years.
According to Sen. Fred Heard,
D-Klamath Falls, a member of
Straub’s Task Force on Correc
tions, which drew up the commun
ity corrections plan, the money
spent on parole and probation
services in Oregon is woefully in
adequate. Heard points out that
even though parole and probation
clients make up about 75 per cent
of the Correction's Division clien
tele, they receive 12 per cent of
the budget, while incarcerated fe
lons, who make up 25 per cent of
the clientele, receive 75 per cent
of the budget.
Because of the inadequate
funding, says Heard, Oregon's
parole and probation officers are
often overworked, and as a result
can't always provide adequate
supervision and counseling for
their clients, which in turn leads to
parole and probation violations.
In 1976, for example, the Cor
rections Division revoked the
parole and probation of 511 per
sons and sent them to prison, be
cause state probation and parole
officers at the county level weren't
able to provide intensive supervi
sion for them.
Ed Sullivan, Straub’s legal
counsel and the chairer of the
Correction’s Task Force esti
mates that about 200 of the re
vokees will be sent to community
corrections centers during the
cost about $1.50 per day.
In addition to beefing up ser
vices. SB 354 would also approp
riate $5.9 million to build local cor
rectional facilities to be designed
by the counties to fit their needs
and resources. The facilities could
include work release centers,
halfway houses and other correc
tional residences, but would spec
ifically exclude jails.
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[| Legislative
|| Issues
1977-79 biennuim, rather than
being sent to prison.
improving the probation/paroie
services may also keep more
people on parole, which is much
more economical than incarcera
tion, according to Neil Chambers,
a Correction's Division staffer.
Chambers says that incarcerating
felons costs the state $20 per day
while parole/probation services
These correctional facilities
could relieve much of the over
crowding in Oregon's prisons. Ac
cording to the Task Force Report,
Class C felons comprised about
three quarters of the new admis
sions to Oregon's prisons in 1975.
Sullivan estimates that 200 of
these new admissions could be
sent to community correction cen
ters during the 1977-79 biennium.
House beats alcohol measure
SALEM — Minors have long awaited their
twenty-first birthday and their first legal drink of an
alcoholic beverage may have to keep on waiting.
A bill, HB3001, which calls for a reduction of the
legal age for the consumption of alcohol to 19 years,
was defeated by the house in a 33-25 vote Thursday.
But the bill may be reconsidered today.
The 19-year age restriction for drinking has
been proposed in the Oregon Legislature twice be
fore, meeting defeat both times. It does not appear
likely that the bill will fare any better this session.
Debate over the bill centered around an
individual’s rights as opposed to the potential hazard
of allowing 19 to 20-year-old people to drink.
‘This bill wiH make it legal for young people to do
what they're already doing,” argued Rep. Jeff Gil
more, D-Jefferson, who carried the bill to the house
floor.
Gilmore also argued that allowing 19 to
20-year-oid people to drink would get them into a
controlled atmosphere such as a tavern instead of
drinking while driving."
Rep. Mark Gardner, D-HiNsboro, disagreed,
saying the “bill subscribes to the theory that every
person has the right to go to hel in his own way."
Rep. Bud Beyers, D-Lebanon, said that if people
under 21 now have access to alcohol, then people
under 19 might have access to alcoholic beverages if
the bill is passed.
Rep. Clayton Klein, D-Centrd Point, said he
would prefer to seethe legal age lowered to 18. Klein
said people between 18 and 21 are granted “every
function of adulthood except alcoholic consump
tion."
Gilmore closed by saying the lower age would
create more responsible drinking habits by “remov
ing toe tori# of doing something which is illegal."
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