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News
Street Roots • April 22-28, 2016
Behind the curtain
As Multnomah County grapples with widespread inequities in its criminal
justice system, heads turn toward the most powerful man in the room
BY EMILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
rosecutors wield a tremendous amount
of power in the courtroom, and in ah
effort to keep it that way, they
systematically block attempts to make
meaningful reforms to the criminal justice
system, states an American Civil Liberties
Union of Oregon report released Wednesday.
Their commitment to the status quo
contradicts widespread consensus across
party lines that mass incarceration is
unsustainable and the drug war has failed,
argues, the report.
In each of Oregon’s 36 counties, an
elected district attorney oversees a team of
lawyers who decide whether and how to
prosecute alleged criminal offenders on
behalf of the state.
Together in Salem, they form the Oregon
District Attorneys Association, a highly
influential lobbying group that effectively
promotes legislation to increase its
members’ power and blocks legislation that
seeks to limit it, proponents of reformative
legislation say.
Despite their role in shaping the law and
their ability to use a profound level of
prosecutorial discretion when enforcing it,
district attorneys are rarely challenged when
running for re-election, and they largely
avoid the public scrutiny that befalls most
other elected leaders.
ACLU of Oregon director David Rogers is
joining Bobbin Singh, director at Oregon
Justice Resource Center, in an effort to
educate the public about who district
attorneys are and the role they play in
Oregon’s criminal justice system and political
sphere.
They will lead a panel discussion about
these dynamics at 6:30 p.m. April 26 at the
First Unitarian Church in downtown
Portland. The event is free and open to the
public.
The ACLU of Oregon’s report,
“Roadblocks to Reform,” found that between
2004 and 2014, 78 percent of district
attorney races in Oregon were uncontested,
and of Oregon’s current district attorneys,
nearly half weren’t elected to their current
positions initially.
Instead, they were appointed by the
governor and then kept their positions by
sailing through elections unopposed.
The report indicates the high rate of
gubernatorial appointments is the result of
district attorneys’ common strategy of
retiring before their term is up. By leaving
their position early, it enables them to hand
pick their successors, giving them the
advantage as running as an incumbent at
election.
In Multnomah County, former District
Attorney Mike Schrunk faced a challenger
for his seat only once during his 32 years as
top prosecutor.
Now his successor, Rod Underhill, is up
P
for his first re-election this November, and
he too, is running unopposed.
One question Singh said he plans to raise
during the panel discussion this Tuesday is
whether Multnomah County’s district
attorney has policies and practices that are
consistent with his constituency.
“We are one of the bluest jurisdictions in
the country,” Singh said. “To not have one of
the most progressive district attorneys in the
country pushing for real and meaningful
criminal justice reform, to me, is peculiar.”
Underhill defended his approach to justice
reform by noting he played a “significant
leadership role” in the creation of justice
reinvestment legislation, House Bill 3194,
which funds programs aimed at reducing
recidivism and prison populations.
“When Rod Underhill says he played a
‘significant leadership role’ in House Bill
3194,” said Rogers, “does he mean a
leadership role in watering it down?”
The ACLU of Oregon’s report indicated
Underhill initially opposed House Bill 3194,
and co-authored an opinion piece with
Schrunk for The Oregonian entitled “Public
safety and sentencing reform: Why overhaul
a justice system that is working?”
“The District Attorneys Association
worked hard to strip House Bill 3194 of any
changes to Measure 11 (mandatory
minimum sentences), including modest
changes that would mitigate the way youth
are treated as adults within the criminal
justice system. This was one of the great
disappointments of House Bill 3194,” Rogers
said.
Underhill said he’s also a primary partner
in the Multnomah County Justice
Reinvestment Program, created under House
Bill 3194, which diverts prison-bound
offenders who qualify into an intensive
probation with the accompaniment of
housing and treatment resources.
“Yes, the modest policy changes that did
pass have slowed Oregon’s prison growth,”
said Rogers. “But after two decades where
we have seen our prison population double
and our prison budget quadruple, that is not
good enough.”
In an email response to the ACLU of
Oregon report, Oregon District Attorneys
Association spokesperson Kevin Neely
wrote, “The ACLU and Mr. Rogers fail to
acknowledge that today Oregon citizens are
less likely to be the victims of violent crime
than at any time in Oregon’s history.
“We believe the reason district attorneys
are so frequently re-elected and so often
unopposed is that Oregon’s voters
resoundingly support their tireless efforts.”
Rogers found that during the previous six
election cycles in Multnomah County, 46
percent of people who voted skipped over
the district attorney’s name on the ballot
without marking a selection.
“We’re a week away from receiving ballots
in the mail, and I can already tell you there’s
one very important elected position most
CARTOON BY ARALA BARCLAY
voters will unlikely be able to influence, and
that is the district attorney race,” Rogers
said. “Because nearly eight out of 10 district
attorney elections are over before they
begin.”
The report also states that in comparison
to other elected lawmakers, district
attorneys remain largely unavailable.
“Every one of Oregon’s 36 district
attorneys actively engages with their
community,” Neely said in response. “Often
this outreach is done on weekends and
evenings, as every DA must see to the day-
to-day operation of their office. Oregon’s
District Attorneys are not politicians. They
are professional prosecutors who are deeply
invested in ensuring the safety of the
citizens they represent”
When district attorneys keep their seats
without any challenger, it robs the public of
robust debate about the state of the local
criminal justice system, the report argues.
“Elections elevate public conversations
around important issues,” said Rogers,
noting current conversations taking place in
Portland’s mayoral debates around housing,
homelessness and the economy.
“The dynamics around district attorney
elections and appointments mean that voters
don’t get to influence critical policy concerns
about the direction of the criminal justice
system,” he said, “and I think that’s a
problem.”
In Multnomah County, a debate about the
direction of the criminal justice system
might help solve the dilemmas it’s currently
facing.
A MacArthur Foundation analysis of
Multnomah County’s justice system found