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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2020
Nonprofi t connects incarcerated parents with children
By ERICA MORRISON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
On days when Irvin
Hines’ 4-year-old son comes
to visit him, he feels anxious.
“When I get into the visit
room and he looks up and
sees me, I see his face light
up, my face lights up,” and
all the anxiety Hines had felt
is gone.
Hines is an inmate at
Columbia River Correc-
tional Institute. He said
building a relationship with
his son while incarcerated
has been hard.
“Initially he would come
in and see other guys that
look similar to me and think
that was his dad, you know,
and that hurt,” Hines said.
“But I also knew that it was
no fault of his own.”
Of the more than 14,000
incarcerated adults in Ore-
gon, an estimated 80% of
women and 65% of men
have children, according
to the Oregon Department
of Corrections. On Friday,
The Contingent, a Port-
land-based nonprofi t organi-
zation announced a new pro-
gram for people like Hines,
called ”Know Me Now.” It
aims to connect incarcerated
parents with their children
for an in-person visit at least
once a month.
Hines’ most recent stint
in prison happened when his
son was only seven months
old. Family members would
share pictures with the boy
and they would have video
visits. He has three children
and said he’s been to prison
three times in his adult life.
“And now I could see that
he knows I’m dad because
he don’t want to get off
the phone. He goes to cry-
ing, he throws a fi t,” Hines
said. “They have to fi ll out
another visit form on the
videos so we can video visit
to calm him down.”
Nichole Brown is the
superintendent of Columbia
River Correctional Institu-
tion which houses 600 male
inmates. Most of them only
Erica Morrison/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Irvin Hines at Columbia River Correctional Institute.
‘THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY
HERE TO AFFECT THE LIVES
OF THE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
OF THESE INCARCERATED
ADULTS WITH THERAPEUTIC
INTERVENTIONS... .’
Nichole Brown | superintendent of
Columbia River Correctional Institution
have 12 to 18 months left of
their sentence.
“There is an opportu-
nity here to affect the lives
of the children and fami-
lies of these incarcerated
adults with therapeutic inter-
ventions such as the treat-
ment programs that we’ve
offered, family reunifi cation
activities that impact long
term success of the adults in
custody and their children,”
Brown said.
In its fi rst year, Know Me
Now will focus on the Port-
land tri-county area with the
intent of becoming a state-
wide, 36-county initiative.
Children will be transported
to seven prisons within a
60-mile radius of Portland.
And for the fi rst 90 days,
the program is focusing on
incarcerated parents whose
children are part of the fos-
Conservation groups want
federal protection for wolverines
Found in
Northwest
mountains
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest News Network
Wolverines are the larg-
est members of the weasel
family, but they look more
like small bears with bushy
tails.
Conservation
groups
say the animals need to be
listed as threatened under
the Endangered Species Act.
Ten groups want to force the
federal government to pro-
tect the elusive wolverines.
The groups estimate
there are around 300 wol-
verines left, sparsely scat-
tered across m ountains in
the w est, including Idaho,
Washington and Oregon.
Their young depend on
snowy, high altitude habitat
that could disappear as the
climate warms.
Gary Macfarlane is with
the advocacy group Friends
of the Clearwater, which
signed on to sue federal
agencies if they don’t add
wolverines to the Endan-
gered Species List in 60
days. The notice of intent to
sue includes 10 groups.
Macfarlane said Idaho
has some of the most pris-
tine wolverine habitat, but
it’s is threatened by cli-
mate change and winter
recreation.
“These areas are becom-
ing fewer and fewer. And,
they may be places that peo-
ple want to snowmobile or
recreate in the winter, and
that’s a huge concern,” Mac-
farlane said.
A spokesperson with
the Idaho State Snowmo-
bile Association says a fi ve-
year study was inconclusive
about whether winter recre-
ation harms wolverines.
“We do know that it’s an
important critter. We know
that we care about them
Cascades Carnivore Project
A male wolverine was spotted
at a wildlife monitoring
station in Washington state’s
southern Cascades in 2018.
deeply. What we hope is to
educate snowmobilers to
stay away from areas where
there (are) wolverines. We
don’t want to negatively
impact them,” according to
Sandra Mitchell, who over-
sees the public lands pro-
gram for the snowmobile
group.
In 2018, the Cascades
Carnivore Project snapped
trail pictures of a mother
wolverine with kits – the
fi rst such fi nd in the south-
ern part of Washington’s
Cascade m ountains in recent
history.
Conservation groups say
protecting the fragile eco-
system, where wolverines
den in the snowpack, would
also help other species on
the brink, like Canada lynx
and pine marten. Wolver-
ines live in some hostile
environments.
“(Wolverines) are an indi-
cator to what we’re doing to
the planet in terms of global
warming because they do
need persistent snow,” Mac-
farlane said.
Conservation
groups
have been trying to get wol-
verines listed as threatened
on the Endangered Species
List for 20 years.
In 2016, the groups sued
the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service, after the fed-
eral government withdrew
a proposal to add wolver-
ines to the Endangered Spe-
cies List, “going against
the advice of its own biolo-
gists,” according to a news
report from E&E News. A
judge ruled the federal gov-
ernment had to make a fi nal
decision about wolverines.
Wildlife advocates say
the Fish and Wildlife Service
has been “sitting on its lau-
rels” because the 2016 court
ruling didn’t set a deadline.
That’s why they’re trying to
compel the government to
make a decision, said Brad
Smith, with the Idaho Con-
servation League.
“As we lost the last
mountain caribous in n orth
Idaho and in the Lower 48
s tates – it was really heart-
breaking. I’d hate to see us
also lose wolverines,” Smith
said. “As we lose more and
more species, we lose more
and more cogs in our eco-
system. It can have a cascad-
ing effect.”
The U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service declined to com-
ment on pending litigation.
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ter-care system. They are
committed to transporting
young adults who have aged
out of the foster care system,
as well as children as young
as nine.
The program seeks not
only to connect children
with their incarcerated par-
ents, but also support those
families upon reentry into
society. A host of communi-
ty-based organizations, gov-
ernment agencies and volun-
teers are partnering to create
radical change in the lives of
individuals incarcerated in
Oregon.
“We are going all in. We
want to change the narra-
tive that says a child who
has an incarcerated parent
is doomed to incarceration
themselves,” Anthony Jor-
dan, President of The Con-
tingent, told the crowd Fri-
day in the Columbia River
Correctional
Institution
multi-purpose room. “We
are committed to recruiting
culturally responsive men-
tors that will walk alongside
these 70 (foster) children.”
At the same time the pro-
gram intends to bring chil-
dren into prisons, it’s work-
ing to make the spaces for
families more comfort-
able. The Columbia River
facility’s visiting room has
metal tables with sharp cor-
ners and hard metal seats
attached. Off to the side is a
cart with bins of baby dolls,
books and games for parents
to engage with their kids.
The Contingent is working
with business partners, civic
organizations, and faith
communities to re-imagine
spaces.
“We have transformed
over 100 visitation room
spaces across Oregon. All
of those have been local
community organizations
and groups that are adopt-
ing or sponsoring those local
spaces,” Brooke Gray, exec-
utive director of mobilizing
community at The Contin-
gent told the crowd.
“So
we’ve
already
been in conversation with
some community partners
and businesses here that
are excited about getting
involved and designing the
spaces. We try to provide as
much freedom and creativity
to those local groups while
keeping a trauma-informed
lens to the space.”
Children with incarcer-
ated parents face many bar-
riers. Know Me Now hopes
to to remove them and help
strengthen foster fami-
lies, like the bonds between
Hines and his son.
“And now I see just in
the way he says, ‘Dad, I love
you!’ and ‘Dad, what you up
to?’” Hines said.
“That I know that my son
is really harnessing that I’m
… I’m Dad.”
Robert M. ‘Bob’ Oja passed away December 24th in Astoria.
He was born on April 26, 1930 to Alexander Henry and Gertrude Maria
(Johnson) Oja. He graduated from Astoria High in 1948, joining the Navy
in 1950 and serving until 1954 as an Aviation Machinist. After the Navy
he worked for Knappton Towboat, and at Tongue Point and Beaver
working for Astoria Marine Construction Company and Nisko Marine
on the laying up of the Reserve Fleet.
On June 1st 1957 he married Mary Johanna Wullger, she survives at the
family home.
Bob went to work for White Motor Company in Astoria as a marine engine
mechanic, installing and repairing engines in the area fishing vessels. With
2 partners, Earl Malinen and Rasty Mathieson, he later purchased the business,
starting Columbia River Engine Company, in 1962 became the owner of the
business with his wife Mary which they operated until 1974.
Starting with summers on the seining grounds, Bob became the 3rd generation
of his family to become a commercial fisherman. During the 1950’s he started
fishing with his uncles and purchased his own boat in the early 1960’s. In 1973 he
had a new boat built and fished in Puget Sound, Willapa Bay and the Columbia River.
In 1983 Bob and Mary started another rewarding endeavor when they moved to the
Youngs River farm that Mary grew up on. They, along with daughter Louise and Son-in-law Paul,
operated Oja’s U Cut Christmas Tree farm each year until his death.
Bob got a lot of enjoyment from the tree farm, from both the nurturing of the trees and
welcoming the customers back each year, many of them multi generational.
In the mid 1980’s a downturn in the salmon returns opened another opportunity for Bob, as he went to work for
the City of Astoria public works department as a mechanic. Working for the city he became a member of the
Teamsters Union. That Teamster membership enabled him to get a driving job working on the various movies
shot in and around Astoria and Clatsop County. Bob enjoyed meeting and driving some of the actors and their
families around town, picking them up at airports, and running the days footage to the airports also. Some of
the films he helped with are The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, Short Circuit, Point Break, and Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles.
In retirement Bob enjoyed morning coffee with a couple of groups in town. He attended the Uniontown Supreme
court at Gunderson’s Cannery Cafe and also at Home Baking. There was a lot of sharing of history and general
reminiscing with those groups.
Bob enjoyed fishing, duck hunting, and clamming with his family. Photography was a lifelong hobby he enjoyed
and shared with his friends and family, he kept his camera handy to record many events with friends and family
and then to later share those photos with everyone. And in his younger days enjoyed motorcycles and hot rods
with his hilltop neighborhood friends. He was a Life Member of BPOE lodge #180 and was also a member of the
Columbia River Maritime Museum, Clatsop County Historical Society, a member of Salmon
For All, and a past President of the Clatsop County Duck Hunters Association.
Bob is preceded in death by his parents and his Daughter-in-law Kathie.
In addition to his wife Mary, he is survived by his Son Bart (Mary),
Daughter Louise Phillips (Paul), Grandchildren Christopher Oja
(Melissa), Caitlin Oja, Andrea Phillips, Eddie Phillips (Steph) and
Great-grandchildren Sawyer and Easton Oja. He is also survived by
numerous nieces and nephews.
A private graveside service is planned. A memorial service is planned
at a later time. Memorials to the Clatsop County Historical Society,
Columbia River Maritime Museum, or the charity of ones choice.