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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 1985)
Kra F r a n c « Schosn->!e»apaper Woo« U n iv e rs ity o f Oregon L ib ra ry tu gene, Oregon 97403 Salvador air war kaaaan Girls A A A championships Sulfite questions Page 2 a M B IM a h a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ Volume XV, Number 21 Marcii 20, 1906 25CCopv D OBSERVER Two Sortions Most Nicaraguans vow never to say "uncle" by Lam ia Duke CiRASSRfXJT NEW S, N .W . — (Jne of the first prisoners exchanged in the U.S. encouraged and financed war in Nicaragua. Ray Hooker, said, "The great majority o f Nicaraguans will never say 'uncle.' Our country may be transformed into a grave yard painted red, white and blue.” Hooker, of Indian and African descent, was the anti-Sandinista's prisoner for 58 days, from September J • October J I. He was captured while campaigning for the New National Assembly which he won His margin of victory was bigger than Nicaragua’s president. “ This is the first time in history that Nicaraguans will decide for our selves what course our country will take," Hooker said defining his coun try's stand on self-determination We will never become another Cuba, Russia or United States. Also, we will not become a military base for It m u st be springl Portland Observer s ta ff p h o to g rapher Richard J. B ro w n discovered this horse parked illegally at an expired meter downtown What we want to know is: Where will they stick the ticket? Measures recommended to reduce Oregon prison overcrowding •‘A system o f criminal sanctioning based on punishment and risk man agement” is the major recommenda tion o f a report released Wednesday by the Oregon Prison Overcrowding Project. After almost three years of deliberations, the group unanimously recommends that new statistical tech niques for assessing offenders' risk to the community be developed and ap plied in Oregon. "T h e risk assessment technology can help us allocate scarce, expensive corrections resources to the offenders who present the greatest risk.” ex plained Sid l.ezak, former U.S. A t torney and Chair of the Project. “ Risk management, the concept of focusing our resources to reduce risk to the community, can be applied at every point in the system, including arrest, prosecution, pre-trial detention, sen tencing, probation supervision, serv ices to address offender problems, prison security classification and parole.” "L'aJer a criminal justice system based on the principles of punishment and risk, resources such as bedspace, probation supervision, and services would be used on offenders who are the most deserving o f punishment and those who are most likely to repeat crime.” Lezak continued. Presently, Oregon has no consistent philosophy to govern how to allocate criminal justice resources, the Project report declares A policy of allocating resources based on punishment and risk management may help relieve Oregon's prison and jail overcrowd ing problem. Other recommendations, all con sistent with the punishment/risk man agement model, include the following: —Creation of a C rin »"J Justice Council to develop the risk assessment technology and to cixxdinate Oregon criminal justice into a system bases! on the purushment/risk management model. This recommendation is em bodied in a bill (HB209.1) now pend ing before the Legislative Joint Ways and Means Committee — Development o f a full range of intermediate sanctions (punishments which lie between release and prison such as restitution centers, alcohol and drug facilities, house arrest) in Oregon’s communities. “ A full range o f options is needed so that judges and probation officers can place o f fenders in appropriate settings and conserve scarce expensive jail and prison space," Lezak commented. — Addition o f language to the Oregon parole statute that "Existing correctional resources shall be con sidered” in making length of stay de cisions for prison inmates. Such a statute would instruct the Advisory Commission on Prison Term and Pa role Standards to consider the amount of available prison space in setting the parole matrix. — Support for accreditation of all jails and prisons by the American Correctional Association, as a means o f meeting constitutional standards of confinement and avoiding costly lawsuits. Welfare group eyes reforms '7 couldn't get welfare benefits, and the caseworker said, ‘ Well, i f vou're so miserable, why don't you just k ill yourself?' ” " / send the paperwork on my earn ings in on time to welfare, but the wel fare department takes so long to pro cess my check that I have to pay late charges on my rent. " " I went to welfare and told them about my fam ily's problem and they said I wasn't eligible, but I was. I had named the wrong program. " " / receive SJM a month f o r my self and my two children, and it costs me 12 45 just to call my selfare work er in Medford. ” “ These are typical complaints o f welfare recipients,” said Anne of the Oregon Human Rights Coal, lion. "Hearing these things over and over has led the Coalition to intro duce HB 2480. (he Adult and Family Services Division Reform A ct.” The bill would require the Adult and Family Services Division (wel fare) to revise all o f its forms and notices so that they meet a readability level o f the sixth grade It would re quire welfare to screen all applicants for eligibility for all public assistance programs. It would require welfare to • < • provide toll-free numbers and postage paid envelopes for use by recipients. It would require prompt processing of recipients’ monthly reports and it would set up a grievance system. Dr. Marc Bendick of the Urban Institute in Washington, D C ., ana lyzed the bill. He stated that "nearly 40 percent o f adult Oregonians whose total income falls below the federal poverty level have not completed high school. Yet a recent study by Oregon’s Executive Department concluded that welfare’s forms require college-level reading skills. The requirement in HB 2480 to revise such forms so that they are comprehensible at a sixth grade level directly addresses this problem.” Dr. Bendick indicated that “ there will be direct savings to taxpayers in the Stale of Oregon from implement ing H B 2480 from reduced adminis trative costs due to running public assistance programs dearly and cleanly " The Oregon Human Rights Coali tion is made up o f hundreds o f poor people. The Coalition works to pro vide Oregon’s low-income citizens with a strong and effective voice in influencing governmental decisions that affect their lives. According to Hooker, Nicaragua is involved in a revolution. “ The essence of revolution involves a caring and growing process. The revolution must take human beings who have suffered years and years o f exploitation and oppression. They must be transformed into new human beings while the onuntry keeps growing. W e have a mixed economy. Fifty percent o f all our production comes from the pri vate sector," said Hooker. He added that in the five years the current government has been in power one million people have received land A brain drain occurred as the result o f the government’s priority in assisting the underprivileged population. “ W e have reduced illiteracy from 5« to 12 percent. Our country is a classrixnn We have free education, but a scarcity o f educational supplies But what we have are free.” he noted. RAY HOOKER W ith 400 international observers monitoring their November election. Hooker said the results were that "Nicaragua's election was the fairest, freest and most honest held in Central America in 25 years.” Hooker is a member o f an English- speaking community called Blucl'iekls He said Nicaragua wants to establish an autonomous government for the Black and Indian populations. "T h e national identity will be enriched. We have political pluralism in a mixed economy." The Reagan Administration has (Photo: Richard J Brown) unleashed a war. Hooker noted, where innocent people arc being killed. "Teachers and health workers arc the casualties. The U.S. embargo and other forms o f intimidation have creat ed a scarcity o f fixxl and clothing in Nicaragua. "Freedom for a small, impovcnshed country is a difficult and costly thing. The price o f freedom rises daily," Hixtker concluded Hooker is on a cross-country speak ing tour. His address in Portland was sponsored by the W orld A llan s Council. Hiatian rights violations cited Haitian authorities single out po tential opinion leaders for arbitrary arrest, torture and political killing, according to a recent report by A m nesty International. Journalists, opposition leaders and trade unionists have been targeted by the secret police and President Jean- Claude Duvalier's militia, commonly known as the "tontons macoutes" (bogeymen), the worldwide human rights movement said. Most arrests and detention take place outside any legal frame-work, without reference to courts, consti tution or law, the report said. Until 1977, arbitrary arrest, torture and killing were widespread and indis criminate, affecting thousands o f vic tims, the report said. Since that time, most victims known to Amnesty In ternational appear to have been chos en more selectively. "Disappearance" and death in custody, beatings and other torture have not been reported on the same scale, but still occur. Among those reported to have "disappeared" after arrest, the report names lawyer l-abbe Remy, engineer W illiam Josma, who had tried to stand in legislative elections, and labor organizer Rock Charles Derose. It quotes the torture testimony of journalist Evans Paul, lay preacher Gerard Duclerville and others, and testimony on the beating and shooting o f trade unionists. Political prisoners are often held incommunicado for long periods, naked or almost naked, in damp, dark and dirty cells in the Casernes Dessalines, headquarters of the SD (Service Detectif), the secret police. This barracks, near the presidential palate, is one o f the biggest buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Some prisoners have been held for several years without any public ac knowledgement o f their detention by the authorities. In the relatively few cases in which political prisoners have been given trials and these have been witnessed by international ob servers, they have not met interna tional standards for fair trial. Victims include those who stand up for human rights as well as people sus pected o f challenging government policy on other issues. Gerard Ducler ville, a lay preacher arrested in De cember, 1982, apparently for his work with the poor, said he was beat en until he asked his torturers to kill him "and get it over w ith.” Released after appeals from the Catholic Church in Haiti and other organizations, he is reported to have needed skin grafts and other hospital treatment as a re sult o f the beatings. The work o f the only independent human rights group in the country, the Haitian Human Rights League, was almost completely halted after a violent raid by men believed to be “ tontons macoutes" in 1979 The at tack on a meeting resulted in the death o f radio journalist George Michel from head injuries. Dozens o f other people were reported injured Among those beaten up were Salesian Fathers, in whose school the meeting was held. The report named political prison ers known to have been in prison in recent years who have "disappeared” while in custody. The report named political prison ers known to have been in prison in recent years who have "disappeared" while in custody. It cited the testimony o f a former soldier and former policemen that prisoners were killed by strangling at police headquarters and their Nxlies then shot and dumped in areas of Port-au-Prince known for a high crime rate. Former members of the "tontons macoutes" testified that arbitrary killings were justified by those responsible by describing the victim as a "K a m o k in " (traitor) or as having "said bad things against the government. ” Many people are reported to have been imprisoned for trying to flee the country illegally Amnesty Interna txinal quoted eyewitness accounts of such people being arrested and beaten until they were bruised and bloody after bad weather forced their boat back to shore. Among prisoners o f conscience whose cases are described in the re port are Sylvio Claude, founder of Ilieuse turn Io liage /Q ( btu m n I) hi* -tX t
