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Ambition, Loyalty
and Motown
Police and
Race Issues
‘Dreamgirls’ takes
Portland Center Stage
A hip hop perfor
mance at Portland's
Latino theater
See Metro, page 9
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City 0/Roses
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Number 37
See A&E, page 11
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wedne:
Wednesday • September 17. 2014
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Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
When Justice Fails
M ichael L eighton
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Unfair punishment for juveniles under Oregon’s manda
tory minimum sentencing laws moved to center stage Satur
day when supporters of reform joined together at Pioneer
Courthouse Square for what they called a "community aware
ness and healing event."
Currently 639 youth are behind bars in Oregon. Over 300
of them were tried as adults and are serving the same
sentence that an adult would serve.
Cassandra Villanueva, director o f organizing and advo
cacy for the Partnership for Safety and Justice, said that’s too
many to lock up without better alternatives to get them on the
right path.
"Young people who commit crimes need to be held ac
countable, but accountable as what they are - children, not
adults," she said. "And like all otheryoung people, they need
to be given the greatest opportunities to succeed that we can
give them."
Proponents of the mandatory minimum laws say they were
designed to be tough on crime, but Villanueva said they aren't
making communities safer, while branding kids with criminal
records that do them more harm than good in adulthood.
Nabeeh Mustafa, who has the perspective of a father with
a child incarcerated, is part of Portland’s black community
and he attended the Portland rally.
He said more young men and increasingly young
women are being ‘injured and devalued by this inhumane
system .”
The effect of a life-long sentence can prevent youth for
rebuilding their lives and gaining employment, housing and
in some cases, an education.
“Society does not benefit,” Mustafa said. “You have all
these young men in the system with Measure 11 sentences
(7 and 1 /2 year minimum) who will be released at some point.
They face the very real prospect of being released back into
the larger society with a huge deficit and no ability to compete
in a job market that is already difficult for those without
college degrees.”
Villanueva said Oregon could be doing a better job paying
for the social and community services that help prevent crime
and support victims of crime. She explained that these types
of assistance help break the cycle of crime.
continued
on page 4