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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1978)
■r ThuredtV. DecemOer K . I9/O Larry Baier t 35021. O.S.P. Correspondent It »as once said "politics and prisons don’t mix.” And « ’igow g to be hard convincing some o f the young legislators, thank God. • On December 6th you couU have found Jane Cease. House District 11. roaming about the prison rapping with inmates and employees about the manner in w hich she could assist those caught up in the crim inal just ice system. To help straighten out their lives and become productive dozens once again • Then up pops Chick Edward. Distnct 33. »ho spent an evening in the Legal Processes Class discussion on parole: while Chabner Jones and Betty Browne (parole board mem hersl gave a lecture on the history of the Oregon State Parole and what to expect m the future. • The O .S .P . Chicano Culture d u b was entertained on December 8th by a large group o f Chicano Dancers and actors from the City of Woodburn. Oregon • A group who call themselves "Vagas" presented "rock and roll" to the entire prison population on the afternoon of December 9th. • A couple o f inmates accom panied Don Adams. Coordinator of Community Services, to Taft High School and laid out what prison life is to a group o f young students studying "Modern Problems.'' 'Behind the W all’ awards Thomas Burke as the "Arust of the M onth." Hey! Merry Christmas people by Linda Cochei! »40510 It seems to be easier today for the prison system if all are called ’ prisoners.' I understand it has dropped from, 'resident, 'inmate* (presenting) aad soon will be back to plain old 'prisoner I also under stand it’s much easier for staff-type employees to be able just to see every body inthe same stereotype Qualiflcxxior»: be a terrific liar, which is the way some staff think anyway, regardless. Be sneaky, like you would steal the soles o ff the s ta ff shoes — even while walking. A big bragger — your crime is better than another guy's. Have lots o f money and brag as to where it came fro m . Be a good fighter and super disrespectful so the staff can unload their mental strain of working on 'prisoners’ by writing an extreme amount o f disciplinary papers. Even io the 'prisoners’ who are stripped down, even while a detective or minister sees. Fair? I think not! Now if you do not have any o f the above qualifications, it will blow the staffs’ minds. I f you have a severe medical problem don’t worry, you won’t get help — just delayed ex cuses. I f you are religious you will promptly be called a phony and just trying a good excuse to get out of jail. The prisons intelligent’ respon ses will be a cover-up. Have you ever been "on tour” to a jail? Why don't you look a: a wall; you’d see more! They tell 'prisoners’ to clear ahead In fact it will be posted. Everything will be spotless before the ’tour’ gets there. Also hassles o f all sons are settled. But all in all people walk through seeing not the real’ thing but what the prison wants them to see. I noticed on one particular tour they were taken only Juhas D Snonden •J M 13 Poetr* Editor (PS’S) — Four years ago, the United States Chamber of Commerce estimated the cost o f white collar crime conservatively at 540 billion a year, ten times the value lost through < proper:>-related street crime. The Chamber figure excluded the cost of ? anti-tms: violations which, accord- •• ing to a Senate staff report, may add ■ as much as $160 billion more. I Recently , the General Accounting ! Office (GAO) reported that, based - on its study of 5250 billion worth of ; federal economic assistance : programs, government fraud may '■ rake off as much as 525 billion an- • nually. Unfortunately, there is no report available of fraud involved m defense contracts and arms sales • abroad. ’ The nature and scope o f white collar crime can be gauged by a few - examples: • • The Food and D rug A d- ; m inistration estimates that more . than 5500 million annually is spent -; on worthless or misrepresented > drugs. In the famous Mer 29 case, S W illiam S. M e rre ll Company ■ knowingly sold an anti-cholesterol drug that subjected at least 5.000 persons to senous side effects, in cluding cataracts and hair loss. • G u lf O il C o rp oratio n distri buted 510.3 million to American and foreign politicians in illegal contri butions between I960 and the early 1970s; leaders from Sweden, Canada, South Korea, Ita ly and B olivia were among the benefi ciaries. • The Equity Funding scandal in 1975 resulted in the conviction o f Stanley Goldblum. Equity’s chair man, along with several other cor porate o ffic ia ls , for their manipulation o f the price o f the company's stock by inventing thou sands o f fictitious insurance policies, thousands of shareholders lost their investments. • C. Amholt Smith was convicted in 1975 o f making illegal campaign contributions; he pleaded "no con test’ ’ that same year to federal charges o f engineering one of the biggest bank failures in history by defrauding his own U.S. National Bank o f 527.5 m illion, while ap proving 5170 million in illegal loans. • The Securities and Exchange Commission m 1972 charged Robert L . Vesco, along with twenty in dividuals and 21 firms, with embez zling more than 5224 million from four mutual funds under their con trol; Vesco is fugitive living abroad. But the true extent of white collar crime is unknown because so much goes undetected and the federal government lacks a statistics-gather ing capability to monitor it. White collar crime eats away at national income through embez zlement. consumer fraud, govern ment fraud, tax evasion, kickbacks, and securities fraud, to name a few o f the m ajor categories. It con tributes heavily to productivity losses in the workplace, a major source of in fla tio n , which result from negbgen: and criminal behavior that impairs the health and safety o f workers. It cheats consumers of the real v alue o f goods and services they purchase. The pervasive double standard under which street crim inals, typically, receive s tiff punishm ent, while white collar criminals frequently get by with slaps on the wrist, creates cynicism toward the law and abets criminal behavior. Despite the costs and hazards of white collar crim e, the federal government devotes a miniscule pan of its budget and manpower to its prosecution and control. In the wake o f W atergate. Congress has both helped and hindered enforcement. On one hand, it has stiffened anti trust penalties, but has also blocked IRS cooperation with Justice Depart - ment investigations. Resources, training, and expertise devoted to en forcement remain meager. O f the 52.5 billion in the current Justice De partment budget, only about 5139 million (5.5 percent) is devoted to white collar crime. O f the nearly 56.000 Department employees, ap proximately 4,800 (8.6 percent) work in the economic crime area at all levels. The Criminal Fraud Section, which oversees prosecution o f all fraud against the government as well as corporate bribery cases, has a budget o f only 52.4 million and 50 lawyers. The Public Integnty Sec tion, which handles major political corruption cases, has a budget of 51.3 million and a staff o f 25 attor neys. Many programs designed to com bat white collar crime appear to thwart serious enforcement efforts. For exam ple, responsibility for policing such crime is scattered across various regulatory agencies as well as the Justice Department. The most aggressive regulatory bodies, like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, are strapped for funds. Many are enmeshed in conflicting mandates, both in policing the in dustries they regulate and assunng them a good climate for growth. There is no single consumer protec tion agency to check consumer fraud The American Bar Association last year concluded that the federal white collar crime effort is "underfunded, undirected, and uncoordinated," and where resources exist, they are "poorly deployed, under utilized, or frustrated by ju ris d ic tio n a l con siderations.” _ ‘ ' The Boni that integration bath ' ’ 2737 N.E. Union 282-2216 ___: M M SPOUTS HOUR •p JOE’S PLACE 1801 N.E. Albwrta DRAFT wut you for o n iy 15< Days: Sat., Sun., I M o n . Coll: 2 8 8 - 8 7 6 8 For more In fo rm a tio n Peggy Joseph-Graves Personal b Business Insurance 283-5012 i teten artentrvwty durvxg Legal Process < OS Pi in specific places and any other places requested were explained rapidly. Why u it the prison and jails can not be seen as they are — not covered up and not made to look better than they really are? Why can’t the public see actual procedures and ways people are ’allowed’ ’ to live? Why are these things so shielded from public eye? Something doesn't seem quite up to par. Another point — ‘tourists’ should be allowed, and so should ‘prisoners’ , to ask questions. W hat’s your feeling on this sub ject. Oregon Stale Penitentiary has re cently put into effect these new Visit ing Rules and Procedures. 1. P H Y S IC A L C O N T A C T — It White collar crime serious problem in USA by John Conyers, Representative A m erican S tate Bank Behind the wall There are reasons for the timidity o f the federal enforcement effort against w hite collar crime. For example, cases are often complex, requiring months and even years of investigation and litigation. Law en forcement officials are also disposed to focus their energies in other direc tions since the public has so little awareness of the costs of white collar crime and is often distracted by the sensationalism o f street crime. Beyond these disincentives is the nature of the business-government relationship itself. Individualism and belief in the virtue of free enterprise are deep)y-engrained in the business mind, and these attitudes contribute to the notion that regulation is illegitimate and that its criminal law igamst improper economic behavior are not always deserving of respect Some critics note that since the business world is a heavy contributor to political campaigns, too rigorous an enforcement policy would not exactly be in the interests o f politicians. Furtherm ore, the revolving-door relationship between the public and private sectors — whereby businessmen work in go vernment agencies that regulate the companies they worked for and ex o ffic ia ls move into corporate positions — tends to create a cooperative ratheT than an adversary relationship A senous national strategy against white c o llar crime is obviously needed. To that end, the House Sub committee on Crime has launched a major inquiry into white collar crime which, h o p efu lly , w ill prod the government, from the President on down, to go after the boardroom criminal as aggressively as it pursues the street criminal. (Representative John Conyers (D- M i. J is C h airm an o f the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommit tee on Crime J HELP PREVENT March of Dimes IPRCt tORFT«»»V*tC •* Ti< »VÌA »*<• In te r e s te d in c u r r e n t b o o k s e b o u t A fric a n lib e ra tio n ? V is it J O H N R EED B O O K STO RE In th e D e k u m B uilding 810 S .W . 3rd A v e n u e S ixth Floor Or cell: 227 2802 I he New York Life agent in your community is a good person to know is permissible to have one embrace and kiss at the beginning o f the visit and one embrace and kiss by the door (adjacent to the restrooms) at the termination o f the visit. At the termination o f the visit, the inmate will leave the Visiting Room im mediately after the above mentioned embrace. You cannot wait at the door with your visitor for the escort. 2. During the visit it is permissible to hold hands w ith your visitor •cross the table but that is to be the extent o f the physical contact This means that you do not hold each others dhows, hands on each others knees, or other parts of the body 3. Couples are not allowed to go to the vending machines or restrooms together You do not need to escort your visitor to the restroom door and just one o f you will be allowed to go to the vending machine area 4. Inmates may hold babies on their laps during «^siting periods. 5. C o n tro l o f children in the Visiting Room is the responsibility of the visitor and the inmate — they are not to disturb other visitors. Children will remain at the inmate*« table or in the playroom, they will not be perm itted to play in the visiting area. 6. Tables in the Visiting Room must remain between the visitor and the inmate. . . . U N IO N OR C O M P A N Y DENTAL INSURANCE is a valuable asset . . . y o u r h e a lth and a p p e a ra n c e «u x in t i l l iHtpi k i n xi i l i t S I XI l \ M 8Á „ F ' A ' W K 1 M H I X|\l> XXI H X M I I I X I I t i l l I II 1 X 1 1*01 ' 0X11*1 I l i s t . U M K I I X I'I I iHIX|v NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED Come in at your convenience PARK FREE Any Park n Shop Lot HOURS: * " * * » - ' p - Dr. Jeffrey BRADY, Dentist <« XX IK IlA X XMIIII I s | l u l l 11 x \ | l OKI «.nV I X k l H I X X ln K I I l Z M l 1 1 IMH< IK I> » I I M H X M I S f ó t t o ^ E ' X O D U S '2 dusa/is-rutS a r u / ^ ¡ t a f t a t a f ^ rn /f4 1518 N E KILUNGSWORTH PORTLAND. OREGON 97211 284 7997 H appy H oliday Season bu t rem em ber: POSITIVELY NEGATIVE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE DRANK FOR HAPPINESS AN D BECAME UNHAPPY DRANK FOR JO Y AND BECAME MISERABLE DRANK FOR SOCIABILITY AND BECAME ARGUMENTATIVE DRANK FOR SOPHISTICATION AND BECAME OBNOXIOUS DRANK FOR FRIENDSHIP AND MADE ENEMIES DRANK FOR FREEDOM AND BECAME SLAVES DRANK FOR STRENGTH AND FELT WEAK DRANK FOR BRAVERY AND BECAME AFRAID DRANK FOR CONFIDENCE AND BECAME DOUBTFUL DRANK TO MAKE CONVERSATION EASIER AND SLURRED OUR SPEECH DRANK TO FORGET AND WERE FOREVER HAUNTED DRANK FOR RELAXATION AND GOT THE SHAKES DRANK TO ERASE PROBLEMS AND S A W THEM MULTIPLY DRANK FOR SLEEP AND AWOKE W ITHO UT REST DRANK FOR M EDICINAL AND ACQUIRED HEALTH PROBLEMS DRANK TO FEEL HEAVENLY AND ENDED UP FEELING LIKE HELL DRANK TO COPE W ITH LIFE AND INVITED DEATH EXODUS DAY TREATMENT 1223 N .E. A lberta P ortland, Oregon 284-1247
