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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 2016)
December 28, 2016 Page 15 Sanctuary County C ontinued FroM P age 3 began in the early 1980’s as an interfaith movement and was based upon the 19th century Quaker safe houses that helped many slaves escaped to freedom on the Underground Railroad. The entire state of Oregon is a “sanctuary” state. Oregon law provides that, “No law en- forcement agency of the State of Oregon or of any political subdivision of the state shall use agency moneys, equipment or personnel for the purpose of de- tecting or apprehending persons whose only violation of law is that they are persons of foreign citizenship present in the United States in violation of federal im- migration laws.” The law means that local police can’t ask for documentation to verify the im- Harmful Mass Incarceration C ontinued FroM P age 2 solving social problems, Oregon’s female imprisonment rate has be- come higher in recent years than the national average. Yet overall, crime rates in Oregon are near his- toric lows since the 1980s. How to explain this discrepan- cy? Have women suddenly begun committing many more serious and violent crimes that might jus- tify locking up more of them for longer? No, what is in fact hap- pening is that women are being punished more severely for the same non-violent offenses than they would have been years ago. Most of the incarceration of women in Oregon is for property crimes, often driven by drug ad- diction. The arrest rate of women for property crimes fell 40 per- cent between 1995 and 2014. Yet, women’s average length of stay in prison in Oregon for property crimes has risen from 17 months to 22 months in the last decade. Measure 57, Oregon’s law on sentencing offenders in repeat property crimes, combines with other sentencing legislation and case law to result in women re- ceiving much harsher sentences than they would have gotten for the same crime years ago. The leg- islation was sold to voters as prop- er punishment for the irredeem- able criminal who has ignored previous attempts at reform. But in reality, charges are stacked up against women appearing in court for the first time in a way they can be deemed a “repeat property of- fender” and sent away to Coffee migration status of a person that has not been arrested and they cannot arrest someone solely because they are in violation of immigration laws. Incoming Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler supported the sanctuary movement in his campaign for mayor and after Trump’s elec- tion in November. “We will always see ourselves as a sanctuary city, and we will continue to be welcoming to everyone,” he said. “Presi- dent-Elect Donald Trump will be the president of all of America, and that requires an understand- ing of the values that drive Port- land and other cities. These are our values.” Creek Correctional Facility hav- ing never received a chance to do better. As advocates for women pris- oners, we’re not asking for a double standard that offers more lenient treatment of women. We want recognition and reform of the laws and practices that have a disproportionally large impact on women and their families. We and the many other supporters of crim- inal justice reform in Oregon ac- cept that property crime laws are facially neutral. But the sentenc- ing data speaks for itself: these laws do have a disparate impact on women. Oregon needs to face head on the clear links between addiction, mental illness and property crime. We need to understand that simply locking women up cannot cure the root causes of crime that so many criminal justice experts consider to be a public health issue. We should look for a new approach for women who can be safely and appropriately held accountable in other ways than imprisonment. Bobbin Singh is the executive director of the Oregon Justice Re- source Center, and Julia Yoshimo- to is the attorney and project director for OJRC’s Women in Prison project. It Does Good Things TM This page is sponsored by Oregon Lottery C alendar December 2016 MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY 12 13 14 15 FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY 16 17 18 Barbara Emberley born, 1932 Hovercraft Patented (1955) Poinsettia Day National Cocoa Day Susan B. Anthony dollar coined in 1970 First Miniature Golf Course Opened, 1929 South Pole Discov- ered, 1911 Bill of Rights Day Underdog Day David McCord born, 1897 Beethoven’s Birth- day (1770) Boston Tea Party Anniversary (1773) 19 20 21 22 23 Oatmeal Muffin Day Dickens’ A Christ- mas Carol pub- lished in 1843 26 Boxing Day Kwanzaa Begins National Whiners Day Games Day Electric Light demonstrated in 1879 27 Ingri d’Aulaire born, 1904 Visit the Zoo Day World Bank created (1945) First Day of Winter Humbug Day Bright Side Day National Flashlight Day 28 Card Playing Day Iowa became the 29th state (1846) National Chocolate Day R First Christmas Lights, 1882 Mercury Thermome- ter Invented, 1714 29 Texas became the 28th state (1845) Roots Day Federal Reserve System established (1913) 30 Tiger Woods born, 1975 Author Rudyard Kipling born, 1865 Wright Brother’s First Flight (1903) National Maple Syrup Day Wear a Plunger On Your Head Day Baseball great Ty Cobb born, 1886 24 25 Hanukkah Begins Christmas Christmas Eve National Pumpkin Pie Day National Egg Nog Day Apollo 8 reached moon, 1968 31 New Year’s Eve
