Street roots., April 15, 2016, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • April 15-21, 2016
BROKEN, from page 4
News
prosecutors.
position during the time frame Street Roots
Both Lloyd and a portion of downtown are examined, compared to the downtown
dropping nationwide. '
“enhanced services districts,” meaning that
DDA’s 662, and Trimet’s 632.
There is a unique feature of Multnomah
business owners and condominium property
Gresham’s DDA also covers an expansive
County1 s Neighborhood Unit not replicated
managers in those areas are assessed a fee
area, working with police precincts in
in any other community prosecution
that goes to pay for extra public services in
Troutdale, Portland and Fairview, as well as
program, as far as Street Roots could
their district, such as security, police, public
Gresham.
determine from speaking with multiple
transportation and prosecution.
“Yeah, it’s spread out - no question,” said
experts.
Today there are eight prosecutors
Hayden, when asked about the
Two of the prosecutors’ salaries are paid
representing eight neighborhoods, with
disproportionate sizes of the DDA’s
by sources other than publicly funded grants DDAs recently
neighborhoods.
and the office’s county-approved budget of
being added to
“It’s not a perfect
$1.4 million.
represent
model,” he said, but
Lloyd District business owners and
One
ofiesiier
was
a
|
Rockwood and
added that all areas
TriMet each pay for their own prosecutor.
Albina, both paid
- homeless man who% been
of the county have a
TriMet paid $206,633 for a full time
for with public
. representative
arrested for qnality»ei4ll©
prosecutor in 2016, and Lloyd paid $75,000
funds. In
prosecutor.
-
‘
'crimes
12
lim
es
since
Ocriofeer
4
for a prosecutor it shares with the North-
Rockwood, the
Street Roots
> 2013, Most -• his arrests were -;
quadrant neighborhood.
DDA focuses on
asked if any group,
_ fo r ««texfering w ill, public
-
Additionally, Portland Business Alliance
livability issues,
a neighborhood
provides support staff for the downtown
. IraasiO m clndlng I l s time be t : association for
high-end property
neighborhood prosecutor.
crimes and gangs,
was drlafcinp a feeer in a bns
example, could hire
These three prosecutors use their
and in Albina, the
its own district
•- shelter while be was excteOea ’
knowledge of the law and cooperation from
DDA works in
attorney to solve
-
frost
TrtJMtel
property.
Bach
|
I
the police in the precincts where they work
partnership with
hyper-local crime
3i«w be was ayrehte< boobed -
to solve the crime-related issues that are of
community
issues. Hayden said
importance to TriMet, Portland Business
1 Into ja ilr s w t
a-lba
pastors, police
he wasn’t sure
Alliance and the Lloyd business district
and the city’s
, crim in a l c o w l system only to
because no one has
Together, they filed nearly 70 percent of
Office of Youth
ever asked, but it’s
' fee re-»arreste< a m onflt or
all quality-of-life charges issued by the
Violence
not something a
Neighborhood Unit from mid 2014 to mid
Prevention, also
neighborhood
2015, with the TriMet and Downtown DDAs
to combat gang
association could
filing the vast majority.
violence.
afford.
At the time, there were seven
While the
“Do you know
neighborhoods, with Southeast, East, North
Neighborhood
what neighborhood
and Gresham also represented. Their
association budgets
Unit continues to
are? They have a
prosecutors filed the other 30 percent of
expand, it began
few hundred dollars,
quality-of-life charges.
with just one
so no - it’s not going to happen. It’s going
prosecutor, paid for by the business owners
Lloyd district mainly filed shoplifting
to be these improvement districts that can
charges, which were excluded from Street
in the Lloyd district.
self tax and want extra eyes on something,”
As reported by Jim Redden at the time
Roots analysis. However the Lloyd DDA has
said Hayden.
(“Hired Gun,” Willamette Week, 1990),
focused on removing gang members in the
Street Roots asked Hayden if he thought
government and civic leaders were
past by using tactics such as issuing
police are more apt to arrest people for
concerned crime in the area could reduce
exclusions and trespassing charges. This
quality of life crimes when they know a
benefits from recent investments, such as
DDA was instrumental in pushing criminals
prosecutor is going to back them up by
the addition of thé Oregon Convention
out of Holladay Park.
pressing charges.
Center, a new office tower, additional Max
In the Neighborhood Unit’s contract with
“I don’t think the police respond
infrastructure and the Lloyd Center
Lloyd District businesses, the prosecutor’s
differently. They have a situation to deal
shopping mall remodel.
job description includes reviewing and
with; they’re just going to deal with it as
A group of private business and property
screening all offenses made known to him
best they can.”
owners, known back then as the Holladay
or her by business owners in the district
District Association, started paying the
and, “Assisting the District in the
county to dedicate a prosecutor to focus
development of new City ordinances that
Wash, rinse, repeat
solely on the area around their business and
will provide useful tools to law enforcement
Working in tandem with Multnomah
property interests.
in an effort to establish and consistently
County’s community prosecution program,
This arrangement drew criticism at the
maintain a behavior code for the district’s
is Community Court It’s where many
program’s
outset
Several
defense
attorneys
streets, sidewalks and parks.”
quality-of-life cases end up.
and Gary Perlstein, an administration of
While no contract exists between the
But dwindling court resources forced the
justice
professor
at
Portland
State
Portland Business Alliance and district
closure of courts located out in the
University, voiced their concerns to
attorney’s office, Deputy District Attorney
communities, according to Hayden. Now
Willamette Week.
Adam Gibbs supplied Street Roots with a
Community Court is run out of the Justice
“It
raises
the
question
of
who
the
partnership agreement dating back to 1994
Center in downtown Portland.
(deputy) district attorney is working for, and
that lays out the verbal agreement between
“When the court retreated from the
whether
he
will
do
his
job
differently
to
Association for Portland Progress, which
neighborhoods,” said Hayden, “to me the
later merged with the Portland Metropolitan meet the special needs of the people paying
soul of community court - 1 hate to say it -
his salary,” Perlstein was quoted as saying.
Chamber of Commerce to form Portland
it went with i t ”
Deputy
District
Attorney
James
Hayden,
Business Alliance, and the district attorney’s
Jane Fox, a Metropolitan Public Defender
champion of Portland’s former drug-free
office.
assigned to Community Court, agrees.
zones,
is
the
Neighborhood
Unit
supervisor
It states the association, whose budget
“It became something that was expedient,
and serves as the downtown DDA. He said
was made possible by contributions from
and a way of unclogging dockets'as opposed
these days, every neighborhood has a
downtown property owners, would supply
to a way of helping people and providing
district attorney assigned to it, giving all
the district attorney’s office with a legal
them contact with the community,” she said.
county residents that “extra set of eyes” in
assistant and would assist with the
Two-thirds of first time offenses are
the
district
attorney’s
office.
installation and expense of a computer
eligible to be dismissed if the accused
But not all neighborhoods are created
modem link for the DA’s network. It’s a
successfully completes court-ordered
equal.
partnership that’s continued under the
community service or mandated mental
The East Precinct’s district attorney, for
Portland Business Alliance.
health or addictions treatment.
example, has a much larger geographical
After conferring with several attorneys,
“If you sign up for treatment, it can be a
area
to
cover,
and
in
the
time-frame
Street Roots determined there aren’t any
very involved treatment that the social
state statutes that explicitly forbid groups or analyzed, wasn’t always staffed. Only 38
worker recommends. You go to jail if you fail
quality-of-life charges were from that
organizations from funding their own
Page 5
your treatment,” said Fox. “And if they do
have mental health issues or addiction
issues - treatment’s not an easy thing.”
According to the district attorney’s office,
between 52 and 68 percent of Community
Court defendants failed to complete either
their assigned community service or
treatment program each month over the
past six months, although the office is
unable to determine how many defendants
completed a treatment program, specifically.
Most get community service.
Deputy District Attorney Adam Gibbs
said he’s looked into treatment completion
in the past because there was a desire to
know if what the office was doing was
effective, however the information just isn’t
tracked that way.
Borg, of Metropolitan Public Defenders,
said there are better options, such as Law
Enforcement Assisted Diversion in Seattle’s
King County, Where low-level drug and
prostitution offenders are diverted into
community-based treatment and support
services such as housing, health care, job
training, treatment and mental health
support, instead of being booked into jail
and prosecuted.
He said King County has seen positive
results by requiring offenders to complete
simple tasks, such as taking one class on
harm reduction - like learning about a
syringe exchange - rather than requiring
compliance with a strictly regimented
treatment program.
Fox said if the effectiveness of
Multnomah County’s Community Court is
based on whether or not there are repeat
offenders, then that’s a goal that’s not being
m et
“There’s a lot of people that repeat
community court,” she said.
The data from cases issued by
Multnomah County’s Neighborhood Unit
showed many defendants were repeatedly
charged with minor offenses over the course
of a one-year period alone.
A theme emerged from an examination of
the most frequent offenders - those who
had been arrested five or more times.
One offender was a 28-yeár-old homeless
man who’s been arrested for quality-of-life
crimes 12 times since October 2013. Most
of his arrests were for interfering with
public transit, including the time he was
drinking a beer in a bus shelter while he
was excluded from TriMet property.
Each time he was arrested, booked into
jail, sent through the criminal court system
only to be re-arrested a month or two later.
Another repeat offender was arrested
seven times and charged repeatedly with
disorderly conduct and interfering with
public transit. According to his court
evaluation, he is also homeless and is self-
reportedly schizophrenic.
In another case, a homeless man who is
schizophrenic, a drug user, and who suffers
from depression and PTSD was arrested six
times. He was charged with crimes such as
disorderly conduct, offensive Uttering and
harassment.
Stopping the revolving door
In an effort to cut down on the revolving
door to its jail, Clackamas County this
spring launched its Transition Center in
Oregon City.
See BROKEN, page 11