Volume XXXXI I ‘City . Roses’ Number 9 Collision Course LearningZone Historic home in path of higher density Cascade campus construction includes students See Metro, page 11 See Education & Careers, page 8 UQ bseruerdT _____ www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • March 6, 2013 F c ta h lîc h x » rl ¡n IQ 7H Established in 1970 „ . o ■ Committed to Cultural Diversity f S „ Cwt * com m u n i tv s e r v in ’ PHOTO BY CARI H a CHMANN/T h E PORTLAND OBSERVER D Clariner Boston, executive director o f the non-profit Better People, and Bruce Tarbox, Portland defense attorney and the organization's board president, are advocating for changes in Oregon sentencing laws to provide greater treatment and corrections alternatives to costly prison terms. High costs has lawmakers re-thinking sentencing C ari H achmann T he P ortland O bserver by It is no secret that we spend more tax dollars on prisons than we do education. Much like the changing values about issues like same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization, people are beginning to wonder about imprisonment. Is it more effective to punish people or treat people? The United States has the highest documented incarcera- tion in the world, locking up an estimated 2.3 million people from a total population of 310 million and consuming $60.3 billion in government spending. According to a December report released by Gov. Kitzhaber’s Public Safety Commission, Oregon’s imprison- continued on page 4