•age 2
Portland Observer
Thurodav November 10. 19TZ
We see the world
through Black eyes
DA gets caught
Here's our hard-hitting District Attorney ceewctd of
drunken driving You have to fill a little sorry for the
man who gets caught doing what so many others do.
But for good luck or the grace of God go many of our
most outstanding citizens. A little nip, or one too
many, then hit the road for home.
But before you feel too sorry for Haas, remember
his hard words about others - his crusade for bigger
and better prisons, his campaign ogainst community
corrections, his pride in the number of ex-cons he
has returned to jail. No compassion there. No, the
DA has spear-heoded his political career with talk of
law and order and tough and sure punishment.
Even more surprising is the DA's attitude toward
the police. He refused to take tests to determine his
alcoholic content, telling the court that he was afroid
the police "would falsify the results of the tests in
order to |ustify the arrest." Does he know something
we don't know?
Hoas said he has learned a lesson through this
experience We hope this lesson includes a little
more understanding for those who ore on the other
side of the low
Discrimination?
O egon's college presidents are getting on the
bandwogon, fussing about their mandate to enforce
affirmative action This time it is a protest of all the
federal red tape it takes to make them do the |ob
According to Dr AAocVicor, President of OSU, "In
on effort to establish some balance and integrity, we
are now discriminating ogainst m en." Is it reason
able to assume that if the men had all the cooches
and one is token away and given to the women, this
is discrimination against men?
President Amo DeBernardis of PCC goes a step
further, "It's reverse discrimination, some of it. It's
crazy."
The sad thing is that if these college presidents and
others had been fair in their treatment of minorities
and women, they wouldn't hove to worry obout red
tope or "reverse discrimination"
Why not put the blome where it really lies?
Jafl raforai aaadad
The Multnomah Bar Association will conduct a
study protect aimed at finding better ways to handle
convicted prisoners in Multnomah County. Calling
the present system "wasteful, both in terms of
money and human lives," the protect director said,
"It foils either to reduce crime or to protect society.
We know that more effective ways exist to handle
prisoners..."
In 1975 a report issued by the Bar called living
conditions at Rocky Butte tail "intolerable" and
urged that the tail be replaced with a focility that
would make it possible to more than warehouse
prisoners.
A new ¡ail will be built by 1961 to reploce the
present facility, which is m the path of a freeway
This will aid the overcrowding and some other
problems but will not necessarily change the
attitudes of the guards or the treatment of the men
who are incarcerated.
Locking men up, degrading them and providing no
type of counseling, rehabilitation or vocational
programs cannot be the answer to removing them
from the cycle of crime.
The new |ail focility, as well as the new
community corrections legislation, could provide on
opportunity for more enlightened programs - but
will it?
This is what the Bor Association intends to look
into. The legal profession is a good place to begin —
since attorneys know the prisoners and see how they
fare in the criminal justice system.
It w ill be
interesting to see what happens to this project —
which talks about establishing a "model system" —
meets up with our District Attorney, who is dedicated
to more and better jails.
Blacks deserve better leadership
by B ark L. Cawtbarno
people wore aware of the process which
It will become increasingly difficult to
ignore the Black community
As the
Coalition for Positive Integration pro
mads toward its objectives to study and
recommend activities far desegregation,
the fact that there are more individuals
who can spread the word in diverse ways
will help to insure that we are heard. In
the past, by and large. we have not been
heard by the Board of Education.
The adage says people get the leader
ship they deserve.
Perhaps aa we
attempt to make the Board of Education
and Ito administration sauce concerned
about sentiments in the Black cornrnu
nity. our political stock will go up and
leaders will come forward who are
worthy of the price Black people have had
to pay to stride toward freedom in
America The leadership we deserve will
not be the leadership we have now
Excluding W ally Priestley, whose re
gular interruption« are usually on behalf
of the ones whose voices are unheard by
the Board, we have in Portland a Board of
Education which for thirteen years has
restructured, resowed, and ruclaeaiAod
the schools in the Black community. They
have done so with very little public
discussion. aa evidenced by the fact that
until last summer's controversy very few
schools
When the Coalition to study
desegregation came about, only M r.
Pneetley participated.
Others have
remained silent, privately «fishing the
Coalition well.
But there have been
others who have made efforts to alow
down the program of the community
baaed Coalition
After thirteen years of cooperative
partnership in desegregation, the Black
community has become more iwMKunt.
thinking that the process ought to be
reviewed hedere more changes are made
We did not protest in the streets. We
called no names We labored to complete
position papers. We moved throughout
the community for support. We asked,
almost in unison, that desegregation be
studied once again by the entire Portland
community. The Board acts in ways
which seem to belie their appreciation for
the way in which the Black community
has in the past demonstrated its support
of public education.
Instead of enthusiastic support, we
have found less than a cooperative
attitude. Instead of the kind of backing
that would assist the Coalition in moving
to the meat of i u work m fast m possible.
we have run Into a duel policy
If the Coalllioe accepts any funding
from the Board of Education, which has
already offered *12.000 in apace and
supplies, there is a need to understand
the Board's conditions. The assistance
has not yet been accepted because the
Board and its administration is respond
lag to our inquiries so slowly. The p ro c ess
of research is made more difficult when
the immediate support of the Board is not
to be felt.
Otherwise, responses on
critical questions would be given imme
diately. and the channels tor communica
tion would always be open.
The Black community deserves bettor
leadership from I he Board .if Education
W e have carried the greatest burdens in
nearly every aapect We have carried it
largely without complaint Now that the
Black community has decided it's time to
take another look, it would seem that the
Board of Education would be willing to
participate with us aa we did with them
The realisation that so far this is exactly
what has not happened is clear enough
proof that we deserve bettor leadership
among those whose decisions effect the
prospects of a good Black future in
America.
Text books colled racist, sexist
Despite book publisher promises of
change in recent years, elementary and
secondary school texts are as biased
against females and minorities as they
were 10 20 years ago. two Oregon Stale
University education professors have
found.
Reporting their research in the Octo
ber issue of "The Reading Teacher."
Gwyneth E Britton and Margaret C.
Lumpkin aay overall improvements are
only in the one percent range.
W hite males continue to be the leading
characters in the new reading, literature
and social studies texts used throughout
the nation, the study showed.
Females and minorities are assigned
minor and restricted career roles in
enough cases to justify continuation of
charges that "our textbooks are sexist
and racist and may be hazardous to our
future." the two insist.
A study of 3.256 stones-chapters from
books published from 1974 to 1976 show
ed that females were in major roles
sixteen percent of the time This is only
two percent more than the books of a
decade ago before publishers started
issuing guidelines designed to assure
equality, it was noted
Males were major characters in 61
percent of the stones, a one percent
increase from studies of texts published
between 1953 and 1970
Twenty three
percent of the major character roles fell
in an "other' category
instances which
showed boys girls equally as major cha
racters. neuter animals, entire races or
inanimate objects
Ethnic minority males were given
major character roles twelve percent of
the time (an increase of three percent).
Minority females were shown as major
characters four percent of the time, a two
percent increase.
"The imbalance in career role assign
ments continues." Britton and Lumpkin
say. "For example, the 1976 edition of
one reading senes, grades 1-6, shows 298
different character roles assigned to
adults in the illustration or the text.
Males of all races were shown in 249
different career rotes or 84 percent, and
females were depicted in 49 different
career rotes or 16 percent.
Ethnic
minority males were assigned to only $4
different career roles and females to 14."
Changes in the textbooks have been
minimal. Britton and Lumpkin point out
"The new product appears to be leaching
the same 'hidden curriculum as preced
tng senes."
School book sales in 1975 totaled
almost two billion dollars, the two ob
served. " It appears as if resistance to
change has been quite profitable from a
financial point of view
"What about the humanistic point of
view?"
Parent and educator concern should be
aroused, the two suggest. “by the realize
tion that attitudes, values, images of
people in our society are conveyed to our
youngest citizenry via educational media
which they are legally bound to read year
after year."
The First Amendment to the V.S.
Constitution guarantees freedom of press
and speech to textbook publishers. Bnt
ton and Lumpkin note in their concluding
paragraph. "Which amendment guaran
tees all of our children the freedom to
read about themselves aa equally worthy
humans’"
JjttíM tO tU ÇÀÜM________________________ 1
New names for eld ways
To the Editor:
Civil Rights Bureau
(Continued from page 1 column 8)
that officers can explain the procedures
accurately to any eittäen
This is to
insure that citizen expectation, and actual
complaint handling, coincide
3. An internal code of investigative
conduct should be devised
This is
necessary to avoid procedural surprise
Such a code will also underline the
serious professional responsibility which
arises when allegations of police profes
sional misconduct are made.
4. Discipline policy should be as defi
nite as possible so that officers can be
assured that any discipline taken against
them is consistent for that kind of
misconduct, and is not a result of a
personality conflict or political pressure
When a decision is reached, the com
plainant is informed of that decision in
$7.50
writing.
Jordan has met with com
plainants who contacted him directly, and
has attempted to explain the procedures
and the reason for the findings
"A
person who believes he has witnessed
police misconduct will not be satisfied if
the investigation does not support his
complaint, but we hope to be able to
explain our actions and the reasons for
our decision The real facts may be quite
different than what the person thinks he
witnessed
Police officers, also, have been appre
hensive about charges in the Internal
Affairs Division. “I have let them know
that unnecessary roughness is one thing I
will not tolerate " Jordan has met with
officers of all levels in his “crash course"
in the Bureau's activities and has at
tempted to bring them into his planning.
The Commissioner believes that one of
the major problems the Bureau faces is
communication with the public.
His
answer to this is more public involvement
in the police force.
"The Police Bureau is one of many
agencies established to provide basic
services and should not be regarded by
either the police in the community as a
uniquely priviledged. special or separate
agency ." Jordan plans to increase the
role of citizens in helping develop crime
prevention programs and influencing po
lice policy through precinct councils and
budget advisory committees
Police
personnel - clerks, officers and other
employees - also will have a role in
helping formulate new programs
One of the biggest changes in Oregon's
Corrections Diviaon in the last several
years have boon the substitution of new
names for old names The Warden has
become the Superintendent, guards have
become correctional officers, the solitary
confinement cells have become the quiet
cells.
The quiet cells, located in the Segrega
tion and Isolation building, are the least
quiet of any colls in the institution. There
are six of them, from 110 to 115. and
these six cells are in a separate cubicle on
the first floor. The entire compartment is
similar to an echo chamber. Scientific
instruments placed in one cell could not
only pick up the noise level of a man
screaming in the next cell, but also could
measure the concussion effects as the
sound carries from wall to wall and cell to
cell. The noise is amplified so much that
even with all the doors to the chamber
closed, a man «creaming in one of those
cells can be heard on the floor above at
the opposite end of the building.
For centuries men have known that
solitary confinement can drive a man
insane Men are still driven insane even
if temporarily
but they are no longer
driven insane in solitary confinement:
they are driven insane in the quiet cells
In the name of security men are buried
in the quiet cells for a week, two weeks,
or longer, depending on the whims of the
staff. It is done to further the "corner
tional goals" of the institution. (Such as
the you-can have witnesses, you-cannot
have w itnesses co rrec tio n al goals.)
Correctional goals are painted to the
public by the prison as rehabilitation. In
reality, in the name of correctional goals,
suppressive and dehumanizing methods
of control are forced upon prisoners. The
theory in practice is that since the
criminal has committed a crime, any
crime can be committed against him. But
this is in practice only. In public relations
announcements, what is happening be
hind these walls is rehabilitation.
Some men have been rehabilitated for
decades They were arrested, rehabili
tated by teams of experts and returned to
society in their rehabilitated (farmer
condition) state. The pathetic fact - the
reality society «rill face someday - is that
most of them were returned to society in
a much worse state then they left.
Despite the manipulations of the statis
tics by the public relations of prisons, the
majority of the people sent to prisons are
repeaters Some were mired in Oregon's
“Corrections" as teenagers, some did a
few brief stops at city and county jails
before being imprisoned, some came from
other states and are "first timers" in
Oregon Someone once said that only a
third of released prisoners come back to
O.S.P. That's probably correct. A lot of
them go elsewhere. Gary Gilmore didn't
come back.
Imprisonment has not worked through
out history according to some knowledge
able people. The "Corrections" division
doesn't imprison, it corrects And reha
bihtates with "correctional" officers and
so many hundreds of assorted supportive
personnel
One night hundreds of guards went to
bed and awoke the next morning as
“Correctional Officers." T h e re 's a man in
O.S.P. «nth a unique psyrhohiatory: he
lived in a fantasy world, one morning he
awoke aa a German General, another
morning he awoke aa a pirate; another
morning he awoke aa a French cavalier.
Then one day he stepped off into reality.
There's a difference between him and the
“corrections" division of Oregon - he
moved into reality, the corrections divi
sion is still locked in their fantasy world
of "rehabilitation."
"A fine gamut. in his own country, is like «old in the m ine."
Sincerely.
Donald Danford
Benjamin Franklin
P o rtla n d O b s e rv e r
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