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U n iv e rs ity o f Oregon L ib ra ry
tu gene, Oregon 97403
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Girls A A A
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Page 2
a M B IM a h a
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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*
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