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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2016)
ATTORNEYS, from page 9 exploring where the professionals in the criminal justice system succeed and where they fail. And if they fail, why? And whether those are failures that are structural and therefore likely to repeat. The point is not for the entire world to remember Teresa Halbach’s death. The point is to remember that she’s one of thousands of people who are murdered every year, or somehow made victim of crime. The issues really are very broad. I think a responsible true crime effort - whether book, broadcast or movie - really can advance an important public discussion about how well we’re doing at administering justice. INSP: “Making a Murderer” and your subsequent tour have shone a spotlight on serious problems in the criminal justice system. But what can the readers of this street paper do? J.B.: One of the things that is universally a problem is funding for indigent defense, or legal aid. It is chronically underfunded all over the world and getting worse in most places. All you have to do is go into a courthouse and you’ll see that the poor people are the ones who are most often the defendants in a case. Approximately 80 percent of cases are people who cannot even afford a lawyer. So if the people that are defending them are like some of the other attorneys that you saw in this film - Brendan’s representation was not that good, even with his trial attorneys, but certainly before that it was indefensible - then you’re going to get a much higher likelihood of wrongful convictions. The support of the public for defenders of people who cannot afford their own is very important D.S.: This is what I’d add to that. The person from whom you just bought this newspaper probably lives every day with the risk that if it rains while he or she is sleeping, they are going to get wet They are experiencing housing insecurity. When you can’t count on a roof over your head, you immediately become more P* " Street Roots • Nov. 11-17, 2016 News Page 10 "I think a responsible irne crime effort — whether book, broadcast or movie — really can advance an important public discussion about how well we're doing at adminis* tering justice." DEAN STRANG vulnerable to crime. If you are living on the street, you immediately draw more attention from the police - not because you are a potential victim, but because you are assumed to be a potential risk to the public. So you draw an unhealthy and difficult level of attention from the police - difficult for any of us to live with. Most of us couldn’t live with daily police scrutiny. You are much more likely as a victim, then, or as a defendant to get swept up in the criminal justice system. Moreover, when you are insecure about your housing - when you’re trying to live under a bridge, or under a lean-to by a tree, or on a heating grate - your sense of self erodes very quickly and, with that, your mental health. Once your mental health erodes, you may start self-medicating, or go back to using drugs or abusing alcohol. Your prospects then, again, of becoming a criminal defendant or becoming a victim are even more elevated. So if you just bought this street paper, and you are worried about criminal justice, you need to worry about why the people you walk by and have simple transactions with every day, can’t take for granted a roof over their heads, or a next meal. That’s where justice begins. Not in the courthouse but out on the street corner where you bought this paper. It begins in trying to make sure we are reducing the number of people who are not secure in their housing, not secure in where their food is coming from, and don’t have adequate access to mental health care provision. Courtesy ofINSP.ngo. CHAMBERLAIN, from page 5 don’t have good roads, mass transit, we cannot maintain our competitiveness, and not only is it crucial for us to maintain competitiveness; it also creates good-wage jobs and getting people to and from good wage jobs. The transportation package - it’s the fight. E.G.: Tell me a little about fair scheduling. What problems does it address? T.C.: Say you’re working on the assembly line and it’s 15 minutes before you’re off shift, and your supervisor comes up to you and says, “You’re going to work another eight hours. And if you don’t work another eight hours, you’ll be fired.” Or, you’ve got your child care taken care of, you come to work, and they say, “We don’t need you today.” Now up until the ’90s, if they canceled your shift, they had to pay you for four hours, but they changed that So you can go do a shift at McDonald’s or wherever, and they can send you home without pay. That’s not right, because again, if you have the mindset that you are investing your time, that’s not respectful and it puts a huge burden on the worker, especially workers with families. I’ll never forget when we were meeting with this group of workers that we organized, there was a woman in her mid 60s, and she did not speak English and she brought her granddaughter to translate. We were talking about scheduling, and she said, “My grandmother is a very religious person, and because of the way they schedule in this facility, she hasn’t been able to go to church for three years.” It’s a really important issue. E.G.: In the past, you’ve considered running for mayor of Portland on a jobs- creation platform. What advice would you give the city and our new mayor in terms of creating jobs that would match the skills of workers who already live here? T.C.: I think it’s important for the city of Portland, as sort of the trendsetter for the metro area, to create jobs that provide opportunities, not only for the folks who live in Portland, but for displaced Portlanders who have been forced outside the city - forced out to areas that have less benefits, less resources, less transportation opportunities. Portland has to come up with an economic strategy. If we can create broad coalitions, working with low-income folks, organizations that represent communities of color and come up with a comprehensive agenda that’s a job creator, for example, infrastructure - you drove over here and maybe you hit Powell at the right time of day and maybe you didn’t, but we have a real transportation problem. Can we create infrastructure for the city of Portland, where we bring people in, where everybody has a stake in the game? Where we create training programs for low- wage workers who may need some help getting the minimum skills to get into an apprenticeship program? Can we work with developers or business owners that are going to bring jobs into the city in a way that benefits everybody, not just the CEO? I believe there are ways to do that In the next 20 years, I think the city of Portland could grow to over 800,000 people. We have to create jobs and the infrastructure to make Portland competitive, and make sure there’s health care and all the services that they need. E.G.: Have you thought about what kinds of green jobs investments you would like to see made in Salem next session? T.C.: I think focusing on a more comprehensive view of solar and how we might use that, being smart about our power grids, and how we update them, because talking to my building trades and, specifically, the electricians union, there needs to be a lot of work there. Looking at Boardman, and we’re phasing out the coal fire plant there. What are you going to put in its place that might be green? I went to Boardman and listened to the testimony on the coal fire plant. I was struck by what an economic driver the plant was for the community. You are talking, like, 100 jobs - which would be tens of thousands of jobs in Portland. What kind of industry can we bring in there that FARMERS’ MARKET JL f OOD CO-OP WEDNESDAYS 2-7PM At Health Share, we believe good health is more than what happens inside your doctors office. Good health starts in your community and includes staying active, eating healthy food and getting regular check-ups. Share your healthy habits with family and friends. 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