February 17, 2016
Black History Month
INSIDE
The
Week in Review
M ETRO
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This page
Sponsored by:
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L OCAL N EWS
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Civil rights advocates are calling on local oficials to reform the criminal justice system in Multnomah
County where a new report inds an overrepresentation of people of color at every stage in their jour-
ney through arrests, prosecutions and sentences.
Locked Up by Race
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12-14
Arts &
Unfair outcomes
found across the board
ENTERTAINMENT
C LASSIFIEDS
R ELIGION
C ALENDAR
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O PINION
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A new report shows what many people already
suspected: People of color are negatively impacted
in greater numbers relative to whites at every stage
in the journey through the criminal justice system in
Multnomah County.
The disparity is especially hard on local African
Americans, who are 320 percent more likely than
whites to have their crimes accepted for prosecu-
tion, 500 percent more likely to spend time in jail,
and 600 percent more likely to be sentenced to pris-
on., according to the Racial and Ethnic Disparities
report.
The indings were produced by an independent
researcher at the request of Multnomah County and
released Thursday with some of the participants of
the study, which included leaders of the American
Civil Liberties Union, Metropolitan Public Defend-
er, Oregon Justice Resource Center and Partnership
for Safety and Justice.
The data was collected by those working with-
in the criminal justice system. It was funded by a
$150,000 grant through the MacArthur Founda-
tion’s Safety and Justice Challenge.
“People are being punished in Multnomah Coun-
ty for being black,” said Jann Carson, associate state
director of the ACLU. “While we aren’t surprised to
see this evidence of racism in our criminal justice
system, we are disappointed.”
The participating organizations are calling for
action to be taken to change the clearly biased out-
comes the report reveals.
“We want to see measurable goals in place to
address discrimination by the system,” said Lane
Borg, executive director of Metropolitan Public De-
fender Services, “and we want senior leadership in
Multnomah County and the city of Portland taking
personal responsibility for ixing the problem.”
Bobbin Singh, executive director of Oregon Jus-
tice Resource Center, believes this report should be
just the start of monitoring the extent of the racial
disparities in the county’s criminal justice system.
“What this report says very clearly is that if you
are black and in Multnomah County, you will be
punished more often and severely when intersecting
with the criminal justice system,” said Singh. “All
county and city stakeholders must take ownership
of this systemic discrimination and the profound
disparities reported.”
He said it’s important to determine how “dis-
cretion is used within the criminal justice system,
particularly in parts of the system where decisions
are made behind closed doors and without much
oversight.”
The report also conirms the kind of racial dispar-
ities found in a 2011 report on youth tried as adults
in Oregon.
“Communities of color deserve a system that is
fair, just and unbiased,” adder Andy Ko, executive
director of Partnership for Safety and Justice. “The
problem is systemic and has long-lasting conse-
quences for individuals and our communities.”
The non-proit organizations lending their sup-
port pledged to continue to act as watchdogs to
ensure change happens. The county will be able to
complete for a second round of funding to help ex-
ecute some reform plans over the next two years,
with the next round of grants offering between
$500,000 and $2 million annually.