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T he P ortland O bserver • N ovember 2, 1994
State Takes Aim At Revolving Door Of Crime
by
Programs
Target
Minority
Juvenile
Justice
F rank A. H all
Perhaps one of the least under
stood terms in criminal justice is
“recidivism.” Recidivism refers to
offenders who relapse into criminal
activities following their release from
prison The Oregon Department of
Corrections measures recidivism by
tracking adult offenders for three
years following their release from
prison to see if they return to prison
for any reason.
Some offenders returned to pris
on have not committed a new crime,
but have violated conditions of their
supervision following prison. The
department looks at the return rate to
prison one, two and three years after
release. This is the “official” recidi
vism rate.
The good news is recidivism in
Oregon has declined steadily for the
past several years. The one, two and
three year recidivism rates are all
declining. The three-year rate has
already dropped from a high of 47
percent down to 40 percent. Because
the most recent one and two year
rates have improved so dramatically,
the department anticipates that the
next three year rate will drop to ap
proximately 30 percent.
Programs for inmates while they
are in prison and immediately upon
their return to the community are
making a big difference and are al
ready going a long way toward re
ducing recidivism. Research contin
ues to show that intensive alcohol
and drug treatment programs in the
prisons with community follow-up
result in a 50 percent reduction in
arrests and a 70 percent reduction in
convictions of offenders who com
plete these programs. Clearly this
level of treatment and follow-up is an
investment in long-term public safe
ty, with the added bonus of being far
less expensive than the cost to re
arrest, prosecute and imprison of
fenders who do not succeed. Every
inmate who comes back into the cor
rections system costs Oregon tax
payers $20,000 a year that could be
used for education, programs for
children and the elderly and crime
prevention.
In a 1992 study, researchers
found that offenders who succeeded
in the community were more likely
than those who failed to have a job, a
stable living environment and to be
clean and sober. In the area of em
ployment alone, over one-half of the
successful offenders had jobs and
were working more than half-time.
In contrast, only one-quarter of the
offenders who returned to prison had
a job. The same 1992 study showed
that fully 80 percent of the individu
als who go to prison have failed on
INMATES RETURNING TO PRISON
G rant m onies have been
awarded to three community-based
programs aimed at reducing mi
nority populations in the state’s
juvenile justice system.
The Oregon Commission on
Children and Families recently
awarded $40,000 to the Mexican-
American Citizens’ League’s His
panic Youth On the Move pro
gram, $60,000 to the Marion Coun
ty Children and Families Commis
sion and $60,000 to the Lane Coun
ty Department of Youth Services.
“Community-based programs
like these will serve as models for
other counties as we work on re
ducing minority over-representa
tion in ourjuvenile justice system,”
said Jonathan Ater, chair of the
commission.
The programs will address the
over-representation issue by in
creasing services that meet the
unique cultural needs of minority
youth in the juvenile justice sys
tem.
The funding follows a series
of developments, including a fed
eral law requiring states to deter
mine whether minority youth are
being confined in detention to de
grees higher than other populations
and to address racial inequality
where it is present.
INMATES RETURNING TO PRISON
Oregon Department of Corrections Director Frank Hall.
probation or post-prison supervision,
either because they committed new
crimes or failed to meet supervision
and treatment conditions in the com
munity.
The Department of Corrections
concentrates its efforts on programs
that prepare offenders for law-abid
ing life after prison. In addition to
alcohol and drug treatment, programs
include job readiness, work, anger
management and other skills to im
prove the inmate’s ability to live
successfully in the free world. Al
though prison programs have been
expanded over the past three years,
there are still many offenders who
cannot get into programs because of
long waiting lists.
A critical corrections strategy
that we have pursued focuses on of
fenders’ cognitive skills. Known as
“cognitive restructuring,” this ap
proach confronts offenders with their
criminal behavior, shows them how
to accept full responsibility and gives
them the tools and skills to make a
positive change. There are a number
of programs that use a cognitive ap
proach as a basic building block in
cluding the Oregon Summit boot
camp program, most of the alcohol
and drug programs, Pathfinders and
Breaking Barriers. All of these pro
grams are built around the idea of
helping offenders change the way
they think so they can begin tochange
their behavior. It has been said that
rehabilitation cannot be imposed on
offenders. This may be true, but the
cognitive skills programs provide
powerful tools that are helping many
offenders begin to correct criminal
thinking errors.
After offenders complete their
prison sentences they are subject to
strict conditions of post-prison su
pervision which they must comply
with in order to keep their freedom.
Community Corrections officers
around the state use services and
sanctions to hold offenders account
able.
Programs offered in the com
munity that have a documented im
pact on recidivism include day re
porting, job search, employment,
housing, community-based drug and
alcohol treatment and a range of oth
er programs and interventions. Of
fender accountability is central to all
correctional programs, and sanctions
are imposed swiftly and surely in
response to violations of supervision
rules. Support of a full spectrum of
community-based correctional ser
vices and sanctions is a vital part of
the total effort to reduce recidivism
in Oregon.
(Editor’s note: Frank A. Hall is
the director of the Oregon Depart
ment of Corrections.)
Juvenile
Justice
Director
Retires
INMATES RETURNING TO PRISON
Multnomah County Juvenile
Justice Director Hal Ogburn has
announced his retirement in De-
cember after 18 years with the agen
cy.
A national search to find a
replacement will be launched im
mediately, according to Multnomah
County Chair Beverly Stein.
Stein said Ogburn has done an
outstanding job of leading the ju
venile justice system though diffi
cult times.
During his tenure he devel
oped programs to combat the rise
in youth gangs and the increasing
demands on county programs as a
result of the downsizing of the
state’s Maclaren School for juve
nile offenders.
Ogburn also led the effect
to replace the aging D onald E.
Long Home with a new facility.
C onstruction is currently un
derway with one wing already
in use and com pletion sch e d
uled for early 1986.
Stein said the county would be
“looking for a replacement with the
skills and experience to keep the
community safe from juvenile
crime and to implement appropri
ate community sanctions to pro
vide sure and certain accountabili
ty for first-time offenders.”
Inmate Release Audit Finds Errors
Some errors were found in the
calculation of inmate release dates in
an audit of the Oregon State Board of
Parole and Post-Prison Supervision
Division.
The audit was completed earlier
this month in 100 randomly selected
files. The audits division of the Ore
gon Secretary of State assisted the
board in designing the scope and
’-----------------------------------
I
methodology of the audit.
The files consisted of inmates
im prisoned for m urder, aggravat
ed m urder, rape and sodom y.
Because the board does not set
prison term s for cases after Nov.
1, 1989, the audit involved cases
prior to that date.
The board identified six ele
ments that could affect the calcula
tion of an inmate’s release date and
found that in 94 percent of the cases
no errors were discovered.
Four cases had errors that could
have resulted in early release and two
cases that contai ned errors that could
have kept an inmate past the release
date. The largest error was 31 days,
one was 29 days and two were four
days, two days and one day respec
tively.
In the course of the audit, 12
clerical errors were discovered which
would not affect release dates. All
the errors have been corrected.
According to chairperson Marva
Fabien, the board has been perform
ing a series of audits for almost a
year.
“The board is pleased with the
results of this internal audit. As with
the previous audit, there was no evi
dence that errors resulted in the early
release of inmates,” Fabien said.
“Given the complexity of the laws,
rules and regulations in this area of
the law, the results are evidence of a
high level of diligence by the board
in maintaining the integrity of records
over the past 20 years.”
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