Our preoccupation with incarceration costs us in education
BY N A IVA SH A DEAN
archaic approach to addressing crime and
public safety.
aced with high unemployment rates
Why is Oregon’s prison spending so out
and crippling debt, Oregon students
of control? Oregon can trace the trend
are stumbling under the burden of
directly back to 1994, when voters approved
rising tuition costs. On Feb. 21, hundreds Ballot
of
Measure 11. Measure 11 established
Oregon college students lobbied lawmakers
mandatory minimum sentences for
in Salem and gathered on the campuses of
approximately 20 “person-to-person” crimes,
Eastern Oregon and Portland State
and it automatically sends youth charged
Universities to protest the
with any of those crimes, aged 15 and over,
rising cost of higher
directly to adult court. Mandatory
education. Annual tuition
minimums are a one-size-fits-all approach to
and fees have doubled
criminal sentencing that prevent judges
over the last decade, and
from using their discretion and prevents
the Legislature’s 2011
Oregon from using smarter approaches to
holdback of 3.5 percent
accountability and crime prevention.
of the education budget
Shortly after the passage of Measure 11,
has exacerbated the
Oregon’s governor and legislature approved
problem.
plans for more than 8,000 new prison beds,
Partnership for Safety and Justice (PSJ)
including siting for six new prisons. Since
joined the Oregon Student Association in its
then, the legislature has authorized more
day of protest and lobbying because, as an
than $1 billion for prison construction. As
organization committed to building safe and
anticipated, Oregon’s prison population
healthy communities, we know that
exploded — from 6,000 inmates in 1995 to
education is a key factor for success. We
more than 14,000 today, and the
also know that students have a difficult job
Department of Corrections budget more
lobbying the legislature to stop the
than tripled.
increasing cost of tuition and fees. In such a
Delusional proponents of these
challenging budgetary climate, policymakers
mandatory minimums point to Measure 11
have been looking at a decade of deficits.
as the reason for the 40-year lows in crime
Because they haven’t found the political will
that Oregon is currently experiencing. Yet
to raise revenue, their approach to budget
the evidence doesn’t stack up in favor of
deficits has been to simply cut funding and
Measure 11. Not only are crime rates
services. Legislators regularly ask students
similarly down all over America, but many
lobbying to protect higher education
states that have reduced reliance on
funding: Where would you like us to take
incarceration have seen even greater overall
the money from? Do you have an idea of
drops in crime. These states are proving
where we can make smart cuts?
that there are more effective ways to
Well, we have an idea. Oregon is one of
combat crime. Notably, these states are
only a handful of states in the nation that
investing in drug and alcohol treatment,
spends more money on prisons than on
re-entry support for formerly incarcerated
higher education, a statistic that is often
people returning to the community, and
met with dropped jaws by students
diversion programs like drug courts.
struggling for financial aid. The Department
Shifting just a fraction of the dollars now
spent on prisons to drug treatment, victim’s
of Corrections has been one of the fastest
services, and other crime prevention
growing state agency budgets that is eating
methods would be a smarter, more cost-
up an ever-increasing percentage of the
effective approach to improving public
state’s General Fund. This does not bode
safety. We know that for every $1 invested
well for Oregon’s future and represents a
in drug and alcohol treatment, there is more
deeply misplaced set of priorities and an
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
F
SAFETY and
JUSTICE
Naivasha Dean is the
membership
coordinator for
Partnership for Safety
and Justice. P S J is a
statewide, non-profit
advocacy
organization
dedicated to making
Oregon’s approach to
crime and public
safety more effective
and more just.
than $7 of public benefits related to crime
prevention, for example. Moving toward
smart investments in programs that are
proven to reduce crime and recidivism will
produce long-term savings to taxpayers, and
generate hundreds of millions of dollars
available for areas that are desperate for
funding, such as education.
Although education isn’t often pinned as
a core approach to crime prevention, the
numbers show that students who graduate
from high school are much less likely to
wind up in the corrections system. A 2008
Oregon-specific report put together by state
law enforcement offices and prosecutors
found that increasing graduation rates by 10
percentage points would prevent
approximately 1,300 aggravated assaults in
Oregon each year.
The strategy of strengthening our
investment in community infrastructure to
reduce crime is known as “justice
reinvestment.” A key component of this
reinvestment framework is stopping the
pattern of cyclical crime and imprisonment
by addressing the root causes of crime. By
passing safe and sensible sentencing reform,
we save millions from reduced need for
prison beds which we can reinvest into
smarter approaches to building safe and
healthy communities.
Encouragingly, Gov. John Kitzhaber and
legislative leaders are expecting a major
sentencing reform package for the 2013
Legislature that will draw on a report put
forth by Kitzhaber’s Commission on Public
Safety. Many policymakers are waking up
and realizing that Oregon’s future will not
be found behind bars. But in order to see
significant corrections reform passed in
2013, it will take a broad-based coalition to
support it. Oregon’s students and education
advocates have joined forces with
Partnership for Safety and Justice because
they realize one of the biggest threats to
education funding in Oregon is our state’s
exaggerated and antiquated emphasis on
incarceration.
the reasons for my resistance
julie mccurdy
still we stand
ready
for the next assault
to our
dignity
to our senses
to our sustainability
locked and loaded
we stand
just because the
genocide you peddle is
now bottled
and loaded into rigs or pipes
doesnt make it any more or less
genocide
yes i am
new to the knowing
and so the knowledge imprint
is still fresh real raw
starvation
disease
assimilation didnt work
beating us for speaking our own languages
or practicing our own traditions
only further shaped our
determination
to hold sacred
the gifts our ancestors
gave us
look who’s shining now
all across this nation
the nations
are reclaiming what you stole
hssssssssssss ...
rane
to the ones
who still retain
mayhem and murder
didn’t work
because
you forgot
to kill us all
and while we remain
while even a drop
of our blood and dna
the ability to hear
the warning in the wind
yes
we still do
stand ready
locked and loaded
just like
rattlesnakes fangs
get to the next generation
we will remain
and we stand
ready
to reclaim
what
our own
ancestors
kept
for us at the cost
of their blood and their bones
yes we
still stand
just because you
now bottle up your
genocide
in prettier packages
mOQFl
we are unaware of
the intent
just because you phrase
things in more
polically correct verbage
doesn’t make the lies you tell
any more palatable
just a reminder
ready to strike
'
because
your actions
have left nothing
but
survival as an option
because
we have learned
to hope less
and pray more
from the ones
who went before
you can not kill
the heart of this land
or its people
because
our ancestors taught us
by their example
how to stand
and
some of us
remember the lesson