Street roots
June 10, 2011
Shackled by old laws, Oregon’s budget is locked in its prisons
BY DAVID ROGERS
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T ;
wo weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that California must
drastically reduce its prison
population to address overcrowding. With a
system capacity rated for 80,000 prisoners,
California’s system currently holds 140,000
people, which, in the court’s opinion,
creates conditions that
qualify as cruel and
unusual punishment.
Oregon’s prison
problem has not yet-
reached the extreme
crisis level of
California, but
Oregon’s ever-
increasing prison
growth and spending
should not be
David Rogers is
dismissed. Oregon
Executive Director o f
Partnership fo r Safety obviously has a much
smaller general
a nd Justice, a
statewide advocacy
population than
organization focused | California, but,
on m aking Oregon’s
proportionally, Oregon
approach to public
has also experienced
safety more effective .
dramatic prison
a nd more just.
growth.
Oregon’s prison
population in 1980
was 3,120, while in 2010 our prison system
held over 14,000 people. This represents a
growth of over 350 percent, or an average of
almost 12 percent per year. In contrast,
Oregon’s general population grew by about
1.5 percent per year over the same period.
This skyrocketing growth of our prison
system has conie at great expense. The
We clearly need to shift onr
Department of Corrections’ (DOC) budget is
approach to public safety
one of the fastest growing state agency
budgets and currently sits at over $1.4
and bring it up to date with
billion dollars. Oregon now spends more
best practices and research
money on our prison system than on higher
on
the most cost-effective
education, a troubling forecast for our |
approaches to m aintaining
future.
For years, Max Williams, the Director of
safe communities. We know
Oregon’s Department of Corrections, has
that prison is the most
said repeatedly that our prison growth and
expensive public safety tool
spending is oft an unsustainable trajectory.
Is anyone listening?
we have, and Oregon is over
We clearly need to shift our approach to
nsing it.
public safety and bring it up to date with
best practices and research on the most
cost-effective approaches to maintaining safe
In the past 15 years the DOC budget has
communities. We know that prison is the
almost quadrupled, but funding for addiction
most expensive public safety tool we have,
treatment, mental health services, and
and Oregon is over using it.
■
P HQ TQ COURTESY OF W IK tC O M M O N S
youth intervention programs has dwindled.
Some of the best investments in building
safe and healthy communities have been
eaten up by qur exaggerated use, of
incarceration.
The primary factor increasing the prison
population and correctional spending in
Oregon has been the changes in sentencing
laws since the mid 1990s. Between 1994'
and 2000, the average length of sentences,
and therefore the number of offenders
under the supervirion of DOC, has
increased significantly.
LikeCalifornia, our regressive sentencing
laws have been passed via ballot measures.
1994 was the same year that California’s
Proposition 184 (three Strikes law) passed,"
along with Oregon’s harsh set of mandatory
minimums known as Measure 11.
Sadly, Kevin Mannix, the author of
Measure 11, has profited by promoting
regressive crime .measures to Oregon voters
based on the politics of fear. And although
these measures have wreaked havoc on the
state budget and do not reflect smart public
safety policy, legislators have been reluctant
to trust their gut and reform them for fear
of being accused of mucking with thé “will
of the voter.”
But ballot measures are a blunt
instrument at best in making public policy,
and these votes certainly should not be
thought of as a lasting reflection of voters’
opinions. Laws should change with new
knowledge and circumstances. We elect our
state legislators every two and four years to
pass laws that ideally take into consideration
good thinking and current economic and
social conditions. But ballot measures, once
passed, do not return to the ballot for
Oregonians to consider whether thoselaws
are still relevant and helpful. So we need
legislators to take on the responsibility of
ensuring that major laws passed by ballot
measures are reformed in ways appropriate
to Oregon’s current conditions.
It should be no mystery to any of us that
Oregon’s economic situation has
substantially changed since thé most
expensive and consequential crime-related
ballot measures have passed. A global
economic meltdown has forced the
legislature to confront multi-billion dollar
deficits in the past two legislative sessions. ;
Although in 2009, the legislature took an
intentional step to redüce prison spending,
there seems to be little movement this year.
The legislature’s lack of focus on reeling
in corrections spending is deeply troubling
when schools are preparing to close and
Oregon’s social safety net is being
dismantled.
As the legislative session winds up, we
need concrete actions to move our public .
safety spending in. a smarter direction. We
need a solid package of reforms that create
tangible savings in corrections spending.
Anything less would be tragic, while cuts are
being made to life saving programs for ,
seniors, children, and loW-income
Oregonians.
For the past decade, California’s |
legislature refused to address its escalating
prison growth and spending while the rest
of their state infrastructure crumbled
around them. It took the Supreme Court to
intervene. Oregon’s legislature should do
better.
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