Street roots., March 10, 2017, Page 10, Image 10

Street Roots • March 10-16, 2017
F IN D IN G H O M E, fro m p a g e 10
was taken to Legacy Emanuel for six weeks.
She gained 30 pounds while being treated for
osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone. From
there she moved to a nursing home and then
into temporary lodging with a friend, a heroin
addict who let her stay in exchange for paying
the electricity bill. On Feb 1, 2016, the friend’s
son threw them all out.
I had nowhere to go.” She ended up at
Safety Off the Streets, a 70-bed women’s shelter
in Northwest Portland.
“The first three nights I slept on a mat on
the floor. They throw you out at 7:30 a.m.,” she
said. “I couldn’t walk fast enough to beat the
cold.”
After a few days in the shelter she scored a .
bunk bed. “Less traffic, more space. We ran our
comer.”
She said she never exchanged her purse for a
backpack. “That would mean I was homeless.”
She got a copy of the Rose City Resource
booklet from Street Roots. “I called everyone,
every day. I went to appointments that I had no
business going to. I’m OCD. My belt has to
match my shoes has to match my underwear.
Mornings are difficult. But I can fill out endless
forms.”
But property management companies wanted
nothing to do with her or her bad credit or her
criminal record, she said.
At Northwest Pilot Project, or NWPP, where
low-income seniors are helped with housing and
transportation needs, she saw a housing
specialist who offered assistance. However, it
looked to be a long process and Chrysanne was
impatient.
She heard about a friend of a friend of a
friend who would be moving out of a room in a
house. Crucially, tbere wäslno1pröperty i”:
management company. The rent was $450 per
month, utilities included. She called the
homeowner and told him she was dean and
could carry her own weight.
She went back to NWPP. “I told Marilee, the
housing specialist, about the room, about losing
Bob, losing my stuff, losing my physical
capabilities. Marilee asked how soon we could
puttogether a rental agreement. I got the
agreement to her the next day.”
There was no furniture other than the bed
but NWPP gave her bedding, a quilt and a
crocheted blanket, and put her in touch with
the Community Warehouse to get furniture.
NWPP helped her get started with the rent,
For a moment, she can’t speak. She
remembers when she first moved in.
“I cried the first three days from relief, and
cried again the next three days from
loneliness.”
After our third meeting at Starbucks, I drive
Chrysanne home. She shows me the garden she
is tending - her plants on the coffee table in
the living room. In her bedroom she has a
pretty trunk. She carried it with her when she
first left Boston. Her albums are in it now -
Cream, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin.
She has Bob’s Star Wars figtfees and his
dragon music box, her share of his ashes stored
inside it.
All her journals are in her room too. She is
working on a book, titled “Both Sides of the
Wall,” about her time in prison and as a
correctional officer.
She pats a red Dustbuster that Marilee at
Northwest Pilot Project provided. It helps her
keep her belongings free of Buddy’s fur. He s
the house golden retriever.
“He sheds like a mother,” shé says, rubbing
his ears,“ but I adore him.”
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Commentary
Page 11
Oregonians favor softer
penalties for drug users
Poll fin d s widespread support am ong
voters fo r defelonizing sim ple d ru g
possession
of Police, Association of Community Corrections Directors, Gov.
Kate Brown and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum all
vocalizing their endorsement of a new approach to drug
possession that places treatment before punishment.
The ACLU of Oregon poll shows the majority of Oregonians
across the rural-urban divide agree. It also revealed 64 percent of
BY EMILY GREEN
respondents indicated they personally know someone who has
STAFF WRITER
struggled with drug addiction.
“The poll results show that the public recognizes that the war
A s lawmakers in Salem consider a bill to make possession
on drugs is a failure, and we need to do something different
of illicit drugs a misdemeanor rather than a felony, a
after three decades,” Rogers said.
Xstatewide poll of Oregon voters reveals widespread
People caught with “substantial quantities” of illicit drugs
support across party lines.
would still be charged with felony possession.
Now, drug users caught with even trace amounts of illegal
Those caught with smaller, user-sized amounts of Schedule I
drugs, such as the residue left on drug paraphernalia after use,
and
Schedule II drugs, such as heroin, methamphetamine and
can be convicted of felony drug possession punishable by up to
cocaine, would be charged with a Class A misdemeanor,
20 years in prison.
punishable by up to one year in jail and a $6,250 fine, should the
A poll of 600 registered voters across Oregon, funded by
bill become law.
ACLU of Oregon, found 73 percent favor defelonizing simple
Possession of those drugs is currently a Class B or Class C
drug possession.
felony, depending on the drug, punishable by up to either 10 or
Political opinion research group GBA Strategies polled a
20 years in prison, and up to $250,000 or $375,000 in fines.
cross-section of Oregon voters in late January. With a 4-point
While the current draft outlines
margin of error, 58 percent of
specific
quantities that would qualify
Republicans, 91 percent of
DEFELONIZING DRUG POSSESSION
for the lesser charge of misdemeanor,
Democrats and 70 percent of
Would you favor or oppose a proposal to change
those amounts will likely be
Independents indicated they favor
Oregon law to make small-scale possession of drugs
negotiated down before the bill is
making “small-scale possession of
a misdemeanor, with access to treatment, instead of a
passed.
drugs a misdemeanor, with access to felony, which carries steeper penalties?
Justice reinvestmentefforts
treatment, instead of a felony, which
-intended to slow Oregon’s prison
100%
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_______ ________
carries steeper p en alti^”
population growth have already
Additionally, 78 percent of
helped many counties reduce the rate
respondents indicated they would be
of imprisonment among those
more likely to vote for a district
convicted of nonviolent drug and
attorney or sheriff who thinks drug
property offenses in recent years.
problems should be addressed more
Support among Oregon district
frequently through prevention and
attorneys is varied, with some vocally
treatment rather than arrests and
opposed, such as in Clackamas, Linn
punishment
and Clatsop counties, and others in
ACLU of Oregon Director David
favor, such as in Deschutes County.
Rogers said this shows “it’s clear
While the Oregon District Attorneys
that change begins at the local level,
Association supports the law
and we need to not just change state
enforcement training and stops data
law, but change the way our local
SOURCE: ACLÙ OF OREGON
tracking portion of HB 2355, its
criminal justice system is run.”
spokesperson Kevin Neely said it’s
In 2014, California became the
waiting for the next draft of the bill to
first state to defelonize drug possession.
officially weigh in. The association is waiting to see what the new
Roughly 1,500 Oregonians each year aré convicted of drug
quantities will be, and there is also some concern that a
possession as their first felony conviction, with 500 of those new defendant could rack up “150 (possession charges) and never get
felons having no prior criminal record, said Mike Schmidt,
a felony conviction,” said Neely.
director of Oregon’s Criminal Justice Commission. The CJC is
Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill hasn’t
the state agency responsible for collecting and compiling
weighed in yet either, but he’s quick to point out that he’s been
statewide crime data.
a proponent of recent efforts to put treatment before
“Those 500 people have collateral consequences of having
punishment on the local level.
that felony,” he told Street Roots in December. Those
“I have been a tremendous supporter of the Multnomah
consequences include barriers to housing, employment and
County LEAD program, which began seeing its first clients last
education, he said, and “we still see a profound disparity in who
week and is premised on no criminal charge at all for
is being convicted.”
(possession of controlled substance) related charges and
A CJC study found that in 2015, African-Americans in Oregon
supports a harm reduction model as it relates to services,
were convicted of felony drug possession at more than double
programs and treatment,” Underhill told Street Roots in an
the rate of whites.
email.
When legislators passed Oregon’s racial-profiling bill, HB
He said he’s also pushing for a Treatment First Program that
2002, in 2015, they created a task force to determine ways to
he hopes will become operational early next month. This
prevent profiling in the criminal justice system. The result is HB program would assign varying levels of drug treatment
2355, which in addition to defelonizing simple drug possession
depending on a defendant’s risk level and need. All qualifying
would also require training on implicit bias for all law
felony possession offenses would be reduced to misdemeanors,
enforcement officers throughout their careers and the collection and successful completion of the program would result in a
of traffic-stops data that include the perceived race and ethnicity
dismissal or reduction of the offense.
of the person who is stopped.
It’s expected the “vast majority” of felony drug possession
The proposal to defelonize drugs has widespread support
cases would qualify for the Treatment First Program, according
among law enforcement and top government officials, with the
to a draft outline of the program provided by the District
Oregon State Sheriffs’ Assdciation,bregón Aásociationof Chiefs
Attorney’s Office.