3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016
Corrections moves forward
on second women’s prison
Lawmakers had
hoped to avoid
such a scenario
James Herbert
Cunningham
Casey Dwayne
Hampton
Albert William
Utzinger
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — State correc-
tions officials are requesting
$3.8 million to continue lay-
ing the groundwork for open-
ing a second women’s prison
in Oregon as soon as June.
The Oregon Emergency
Board will consider the request
Wednesday. The board already
approved $1 million in May to
make building repairs at Ore-
gon State Penitentiary Mini-
mum, where the second wom-
en’s prison would be housed.
Opening the prison would
cost about $20 million and
comes as officials project a
$1.7 billion shortfall in the
state budget to maintain exist-
ing services.
Lawmakers approved $55
million in grants to counties
over the past three years with
the hope of avoiding such a
scenario. The grant proceeds
are intended to pay for pro-
grams that help keep offend-
ers out of prison. Despite
those concerted efforts, the
population at the state’s sole
women’s prison — Coffee
Creek Correctional Facil-
ity in Wilsonville, has hov-
ered over the 1,280 limit since
May. The population reached
an all-time high of 1,315 in
November, said Liz Craig, an
administrator in the Depart-
ment of Corrections Office of
Communications.
State officials have used the
1,280-population threshold as
a trigger for opening a second
women’s prison.
Gov. Kate Brown allocated
$17.5 million in her proposed
budget to open the second
women’s prison. The wom-
en’s prison population changes
daily but was roughly 20 over
capacity at the time Brown
unveiled her budget.
Carie Sue
Wagner
Timothy Dean
Yaakola
Five arrested in
Astoria drug bust
The Daily Astorian
Pamplin Media Group
Gov. Kate Brown’s administration is pressing the opening of a second women’s prison
despite a $1.7 billion budget shortfall. The Oregon Emergency Board will vote Wednesday
on a $3.8 million funding request to advance a project that will cost a total of $20 million.
The proposal provoked
outcry from criminal justice
reform advocates and others.
“With a budget shortfall
of nearly 1.7 billion (dollars),
are we really doing this?”
responded Andrea Lundell,
communications director for
the Oregon Justice Resource
Center, in a Dec. 1 tweet.
“A second women’s prison
at a cost of $20 million over
(the) next couple of years is
fiscally and socially irresponsi-
ble,” Lundell tweeted Monday.
“The E Board should say no to
a second prison. Focus should
be on maximizing impact of
(alternatives) to incarceration
wherever practical.”
Marion and Lane counties
both have started work release
programs that are projected to
keep 21 to 26 women out of
prison. Those programs alone
would address overcrowding
at Coffee Creek.
Several legislators also
plan to sponsor bills that
would help reduce the wom-
en’s prison population.
State Rep. Carla Piluso,
D-Gresham, for example,
wants to expand an early-re-
lease program that already has
saved 182,642 state prison bed
days. Known as short-term
transitional leave, the program
has been “the most successful
sentencing change” in recent
years in terms of saving money
and increasing public safety,
said Michael Schmidt, exec-
utive director of the Oregon
Criminal Justice Commission.
Inmates eligible for the
program are released 90 days
short of their sentence. Pilu-
so’s bill could increase that to
120 to 180 days.
Despite those efforts,
Brown included the prison in
her proposed two-year budget.
“Gov. Brown found it
would be irresponsible for the
state not to set into motion
plans to address future capac-
ity concerns,” said Bryan
Hockaday, a spokesman for
the governor. “However,
Gov. Brown remains hope-
ful that through thoughtful
and well-coordinated collab-
oration with Oregon counties
and community corrections,
more women will have access
to workforce and transitional
training programs.”
If officials can avoid
opening the second prison,
Brown plans to ask lawmak-
ers to invest those savings in
“proven initiatives that help
people to be successful and
avoid the criminal justice sys-
tem all together,” Hockaday
said.
“Not only is the opening of
OSPM costly to taxpayers at a
time when state resources are
already so limited, it is con-
trary to Oregon’s approach of
justice reinvestment to reduce
recidivism and supporting
the self-sufficiency of prior
offenders,” he said.
Oregon State Peniten-
tiary Minimum — an annex
of the Oregon State Peniten-
tiary — was mothballed in
2010 to save money during the
recession.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Five people are in jail
after the Clatsop County
Drug Task Force, search
warrants in hand, swept
through a house at Lyngs-
tad Heights in Astoria on
Saturday.
There had already been
numerous
neighborhood
complaints about 35303
Lyngstad Heights. After
obtaining search warrants
for the delivery of controlled
substances, law enforcement
entered the residence and
arrested Timothy Dean Yaa-
kola, 45, in the garage. He
was arrested for frequent-
ing a place where drugs are
used or sold and for failure
to appear.
They also arrested Albert
William Utzinger, 47, for
frequenting a place where
drugs are used or sold.
Along with Yaakola in the
garage was James Herbert
Cunningham, 45. He had
methamphetamine, heroin
and digital scales in his pos-
session as well as what the
Sheriff’s Office described as
“a small destructive device.”
The Oregon State Police
bomb squad took the device
for further evaluation.
Cunningham
was
arrested for unlawful deliv-
ery of methamphetamine,
possession of heroin, posses-
sion of methamphetamine,
possession of a destructive
device and frequenting a
place where drugs are used
or sold.
Downstairs,
officers
found Carie Sue Wagner,
38, Casey Dwayne Hamp-
ton, 43, and a 14-year-old
girl. They arrested Hampton
on an outstanding warrant,
endangering the welfare of
a minor, unlawful delivery
of methamphetamine, felon
in possession of a restricted
weapon and frequenting a
place where drugs are used
or sold.
Wagner was arrested on
similar charges: for endan-
gering the welfare of a
minor, unlawful delivery of
methamphetamine, unlaw-
ful delivery of heroin, pos-
session of heroin, possession
of methamphetamine, felon
in possession of a restricted
weapon and frequenting a
place where drugs are used
or sold.
The teenage girl was
taken to a relative’s house.
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