Oregon daily emerald., April 27, 1981, Image 1

daily Emerald
Vol. 82, No. 141
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Monday, April 27, 1981
Show stopper
Photo by Steve Dykes
University sophomore Dean Crouser reacts with
jubilation after tossing the discus Saturday for a
record 213 feet. The show-stopping throw high
lighted the Ducks' track win over Kansas and
surpassed the University record established by
Olympian gold medalist Mac Wilkins. See sports,
page 8.
Board okays
Ph.D. program
The State Board of Higher Education approved a propo
sal for a new University computer and information science
doctoral degree program Friday.
Meeting at the Oregon College of Education campus in
Monmouth, the Board reversed a March 27 rejection of the
proposal.
At its March meeting, the Board feared that the Legisla
ture would view the addition of a new program as inappro
priate in light of recent budget troubles.
But Friday the Board approved the doctorate program
without any discussion.
The CIS doctoral program will begin in the 1981-82
academic year. The department expects to enroll about 15
students and award three PhDs each year.
The doctoral degree will require at least three years of study
beyond the bachelor’s degree.
Oregon State University offers the only other computer
science doctoral program in the state. Currently the Univer
sity CIS program offers a bachelor’s degree and a two-year
master’s degree program.
In other business, the Board again rejected OSU’s
request for a proposed part-time liberal arts extension
program in Bend
The program was designed for Central Oregon students
who are unable to participate in a full-time program at a state
college or university campus.
Body discovered
in Science I lab
The body of a 50-year-old white male was discovered by a
maintenance supervisor Friday afternoon in a University
science building, according to the Eugene Police Depart
ment.
Indentification of the dead man and details surrounding
the death are being withheld pending further investigation
and notification of the man's family.
The EPD representative said the man was dead when he
was discovered at approximately 2:50 p.m. last Friday in
Science I.
A police department representative would not comment
on the cause of the death or any details concerning the
discovery of the body. The circumstances of the death are still
under investigation, he said.
< The police report concerning the death is "on hold" in
the persons section of the EPD, he said.
Other sources said the man’s body was removed from a
third-floor science laboratory
Prison cell space like oil — it’s scarce
By SALLY HODGKINSON
Of th« Emerald
Prisons are considered an endless resource by
many, but like oil, correction facilities space is running
out, researcher Barry Krisberg told a University confer
ence on institutional overcrowding Friday.
Krisberg, research director for the National Council
on Crime and Delinquency, likened the problem of oil
supply to the problem of cell supply in the nation’s
prisons.
"It’s scarce, it’s expensive, it’s disappearing, and
we seem to be growing more and more dependent on
it.”
A research project that surveyed the nation’s
county jails and state prisons concluded that 65 percent
of all prisons have substandard facilities. The study
reported that prisons and jails are operating at 173
percent of capacity and that it would take $20 billion to
bring prisons up to minimum standards, Krisberg said.
Prison overcrowding obviously is "a serious na
tional problem,” he said. Prison populations have
exploded in the last decade, increasing an average of
7.4 percent annually from 1972 to I978.
"Only the Soviet Union and South Africa have a
higher incarceration rate than the United States,”
Krisberg said.
The average incarceration rate in the United States
is 207 per 100,000. In Oregon the rate is 194 per
100,000, in Washington 185, in Idaho 156 and in Hawaii
58. Nevada has the highest rate in the nation with 345
per 100,000
Nationally, 68 percent of all prisoners live in sub
standard conditions, Krisberg said. Oregon is third in
the nation with 72 percent of its prison population living
in crowded conditions. Prison conditions have prompt
ed lawsuits in 42 states, he said
When the incarceration rate is broken down by
race, the number of incarcerated minorities is 10 times
that of whites, Krisberg said. Although the exact ratio
varies from state to state, some states have up to 100
times as many minorities as whites in their prison
populations, he said.
Oregon ranks in the top 5 percent of states having
the highest percentage of minority prisoners compared
to the general population.
Financially, Oregon is 16th in the nation in money
spent per prisoner, Krisberg said. Oregon taxpayers
spend about $5,000 per prisoner, Idaho spends $5,300,
Washington spends $10,000, and California spends
about $8,000. Massachusetts tops the list with $14,442
per prisoner, and Texas is at the bottom with $2,241 per
prisoner.
Aternatives to overcrowding include early release
of prisoners, reclassification of prisoners, development
of community correction programs, new construction
and moving state prisoners- to county jails, Krisberg
said.
But most of these alternatives are politically un
popular and unfeasible, he said
And building new prisons is an expensive short
term solution. New prisons become overcrowded soon
after they’re built, Krisberg said.
Community programs increase the number of
prisoners, he said. Aside from being unpopular, the
programs encourage judges to send criminals who may
have been placed on probation to the rehabilitation
program.
“Rather than being alternative, community pro
grams just widen the net.”
As long as correction officials depend on the
"unlimited capacity” of incarceration to solve their
problems, prisons will continue to be overcrowded?, he
said.