Street roots., March 20, 2015, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • March 20-26, 2015
News
Page 5
JU STICE, fro m page 4
cost may have been diverted, Schmidt says
the state is only within about 200 prison
beds of having to open the other half of
Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in
central Oregon.
But he’s hopeful the Legislature will find
more money to put toward the grant
program. He says that he knows Gov. Kate
Brown is aware of the program and that two
members of the Public Safety Task Force,
Rep. Jennifer Williamson and Sen. Jackie
Winters, are “both really big advocates” for
the investment and can influence its future
funding.
Winters says that while “recidivism is
lower and communities are safer in the long
run,” it’s a matter of priorities.
What the co-chairs did in their
recommended budget, Winters says, “was
cut it down in order to give greater funding
to education. All of us really support
education as well.” Although, she says she
didn’t expect such a drastic cut.
“We need at least $30 million,” she says.
“Anytime we can invest in lowering prison
beds and keeping communities safe, we
should.”
Spending money to help criminals get
services might seem like a lower priority
than education for children, but Citizens
Crime Commission director Suzanne
Hayden points out, ‘'It’s all related.”
“We’re finding that a lot of the offenders,
in (Multnomah County’s) program at least,
are parents,” she says. “If you make
investments in the right way in this area, it
will free up more funds in the future and
provide better outcomes for kids whose
parents are in the criminal justice system.
And that’s going to have better results for
our community in the long run.”
Michael Fields, 29, sits with his girlfriend, Kayla Strauch. Fields was accepted into
Multnomah County’s Justice Reinvestment Program instead o f going to prison.
“In a normal world, a defense attorney
would never in a million years create a
report that says, ‘My client is likely to
commit crimes in the future,’ and then turn
it over to the district attorney, but that’s
what we’re forced to do, and that’s
something that is incredibly troubling to
me,” says Josh McCarthy, an attorney with .
Metropolitan Public Defender Services.
He says that without MCJRP, that same
person would be just as likely to be eligible
for probation under HB3194, but now, in
order to have a better chance at probation,
the defendant has to give up his or her right
to silence before sentencing.
In the last budget cycle, Multnomah
County received $3.2 million in grant
money, which it used, in part, to develop
MCJRP in 2014.
McCarthy says more of the grant money
Local lawyers call foul
could have gone toward the county’s
resource-strapped treatment programs had
Unlike other counties, which invested the
it not been spent on developing
state grant money in existing treatment and
administrative processes and salaries for
related programs, Multnomah County
new positions in MCJRP.
created a whole new sentencing evaluation
“The benefits of JRP were going to
and probation system for high-risk offenders.
happen anyway, so why they overlaid these
The Multnomah County Justice
Reinvestment Program, or MCJRP, has been additional processes and requirements on
top of it is baffling to me,” McCarthy says.
up and running since July.
The assessment, also known as the Level
Some defense lawyers argue that while
of Service/Case Management Inventory, is
more money from the state’s grant program
for treatment and housing services is a good given to anyone who goes on to probation,
but usually it’s after sentencing. The
thing, the way Multnomah County has
interview, which has been shown to
chosen to use its funds creates unnecessary
accurately predict a person’s likelihood of
processes and may infringe on a defendant’s
committing future crimes, was intended to
constitutional rights.
help determine what kind of treatment
Hayden, who also serves as MCJRP’s
someone needs, not play into sentencing.
committee chair, explains the county casts a
Martin, who oversees Multnomah
very wide net, evaluating everyone who
County’s probation department as deputy
might be facing prison to see if they are
eligible for the program. People convicted of director of the Department of Community
Justice, says the idea of conducting the
homicide, sex crimes, domestic violence
interview before sentencing is the
crimes and other top-tier Measure 11
foundation of the program.
offenses are not eligible.
“To create the infonned sentencing
Eligible defendants who wish to take part
process was really the whole basis of this
in the program must undergo a risk
county’s approach to justice reinvestment,”
assessment while they’re in custody, but
Martin says. She says that most everyone in
before sentencing. Going through this
the program is at a high risk to reoffend and
process is no guarantee a defendant will not
that the goals of this new approach are to
go to prison. So far, out of 365 people to
undergo pre-sentencing risk assessments, 41 know about-people’s criminal risk factors,
what kind of interventions they need and
received prison sentences.
their stability in the community - before
Defense lawyers argue this assessment,
sentencing.
which is designed to determine how likely a
“Yes, it’s very unusual,” she says. “I know
person is to re-offend, should not be
the defense bar has been cautious about the
conducted prior to sentencing because the
whole thing, but we don’t ask questions in
prosecutor is privy to the results.
the interview about the current offense.” .
Other complaints from defense attorneys
include the cumbersome nature of the
processes involved with MCJRP and that
probationers in the program get more
access to services than do people who might
have opted out of the program but received »
probation anyway. They say this rewards
people for giving up their constitutional
rights and punishes those who don’t by
giving them less access to services once
they’re on probation.
Martin says that while people on regular
probation also have access to services, it’s
true that MCJRP probationers have been
prioritized.
“As a criminal justice system in the
community, we said these are the people we
really want to do a good job with and we
really want to focus on,” she says. “Part of it
is because they are the higher recidivism w
population and they are always the people
we would have paid attention to.”
Hinojosa says she didn’t mind giving up
her right to remain silent and go through
the risk assessment pretrial; of course she
had — almost immediately after being
-arrested — admitted to the assault,
according to police reports.
“They ask you what you need to change
your life,” she says.
Rewriting futures
It’s not every day you see a convict hug
his or her probation officer. But on March 5,
in the boardroom at the Multnomah
Building, several felons did just that as they
took center stage to receive certificates for
being the first group of MCJRP probationers
to make it to the 120-day mark.
One woman wept as she clung to her
“milestone certificate,” several spoke of
being homeless and without hope prior to
their arrest, and one man — the last to take
the stage - joked that he was surprised no
one else had mentioned they were “scared
of going to prison” when they agreed to the
terms of probation.
Months earlier, these same felons were
facing potentially long prison sentences, but
the eight men and two women being
honored that day all say they have drastically
turned their lives around, thanks to the
program.
Also in attendance and cheering on the
honorees were other MCJRP probationers.
Michael Miyamura, 60 days into the
program, watched from the back row.
“They set the bar,” he says of his peers.
“If they can do it, the rest of us can do it.”
Miyamura says he was homeless, addicted
to meth and facing a 15-year prison sentence
for stealing cars before being offered a
second chance instead.
“It’s a blessing,” he says. It would have
been his first stint in prison.
Michael Fields was facing a six-year
sentence for identity theft, illegal possession
of a firearm and delivery of meth but was
accepted into Multnomah County’s Justice
Reinvestment Program instead of going to
prison.
“The program makes you realize there is
an alternative to the lifestyle,” says Fields,
who completed drug and alcohol treatment
and is moving on to phase two. For him, that
includes parenting classes and looking for
employment through Southeast Works, says
his probabation officer, Brenda Bunce.
“I was stuck in the lifestyle,” Fields says.
“It was a vicious circle. I didn’t ever think
about the next day. Now I’m motivated. I’ve
seen myself become hungry for a better life.”
In addition to treatment counselors, social
workers and probation officers, most people
in MCJRP also have a mentor through
Volunteers of America, where they receive
treatment.
Thi Vu spent about 17 years in prison and
struggled with drugs and alcohol for many
years. Now he’s mentoring 20 people in
MCJRP. “I’m able to talk to them in a
language they understand. I was in their
shoes afey/ years ago,” tie says*
It wasn’t until he went through
Multnomah County’s Re-entry Enhancement
Coordination, or REC, program after his last
prison stay ended that he was able to turn
his life around. The MCJRP program is
modeled after the REC program in many
ways because REC has been shown to
reduce offenders’ likelihood of committing
another felony by 33 percent.
Vu credits much of his post-prison
success to a mentor he had in that program,
and now, he says, he wants to pay it forward.
“A lot of being a mentor is about the
ability to be there,” Vu says. “They’re told
over and over that they have support, but
then everybody is clocked off when the
support is needed the most. I tell them my
phone is always on.”
Hinojosa was present at the milestone
ceremony as well. Her probation officer,
Tynan, and counselors are helping her apply
for scholarships to go to school, find
permanent housing, and stay in treatment
and on her medications.
Hinojosa also has recently reconnected
with her grown daughter whom she’s barelyr
spoken with in more than a decade. And
next week, she’s getting her teeth fixed.
“Many of these clients on MCJRP will
face extremely difficult hurdles to
overcome,” Tynan says. “With Carole, we
are working to address the cause of her
involvement in the criminal justice system
with the wrap-around services.”
Hinojosa says it’s been easy to stay clean
now that she has a roof over her head, and
for the first time in her life, “I’m healing
from my childhood.”
emily@streetroots. org