Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, May 31, 2017, Page Page 6, Image 6

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    Page 6
May 31, 2017
New Prices
Effective
April 1, 2017
O PINION
Martin
Cleaning
Service
Carpet & Upholstery
Cleaning
Residential &
Commercial Services
Minimum Service CHG.
$50.00
A small distance/travel
charge may be applied
CARPET CLEANING
2 Cleaning Areas or more
$30.00 each Area
Pre-Spray Traffic Areas
(Includes: 1 small Hallway)
1 Cleaning Area (only)
$50.00
Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area
(Hallway Extra)
Stairs (12-16 stairs - With
Other Services) : $30.00
Area/Oriental Rugs:
$25.00 Minimum
Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool) :
$40.00 Minimum
Heavily Soiled Area:
$10.00 each area
(Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying)
UPHOLSTERY
CLEANING
Sofa: $69.00
Loveseat: $49.00
Sectional: $109 - $139
Chair or Recliner:
$25.00 - $49.00
Throw Pillows (With
Other Services) : $5.00
ADDITIONAL
SERVICES
• Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning
• Deodorizing & Pet
Odor Treatment
• Spot & Stain
Removal Service
• Scotchguard Protection
• Minor Water Damage
Services
SEE CURRENT FLYER
FOR ADDITIONAL
PRICES & SERVICES
Call for Appointment
(503) 281-3949
Sessions Charts a Course to Criminal Injustice
Moving in the
wrong direction
M arC h. M orial
Dear Attorney Gener-
al Jeff Sessions, the 20th
century called. It wants
its failed, heavy-handed
criminal justice policies
back.
In a throwback to
the George W. Bush
administration, Sessions is wide-
ly expected to formally order all
federal prosecutors to impose the
harshest sentences for all drug of-
fenses and offenders, including the
return of the widely unpopular and
discredited mandatory minimums.
This “dumb on crime,” by-
gone-era approach to criminal jus-
tice will catapult our nation back
to the days of racially-infected
mass incarceration, warehousing
black and brown bodies at a rate
wildly disproportionate to their
overall rate of population as a re-
sult of overzealously dispropor-
tionate law enforcement.
It will perpetually ensnare non-
violent offenders, who have small
chance of being rehabilitated while
in prison, leaving them to face
near-insurmountable
obstacles
and odds to fully re-enter society,
while robbing already vulnerable
communities of an ex-offender’s
future potential as an employed
and civically engaged citizen. And
by
it comes with a heavy price tag for
taxpayers—both in terms of safety
and cost—with study after study
revealing a cynically slim return
on investment, if any.
Sessions’ reversal of
Obama-era policies that
sought to correct the
egregious wrongs of our
nation’s broken criminal
justice system—such as
reserving the harshest sen-
tencing and enforcement
not a solution that has, or will,
make us safer.
According to data from The
Sentencing Project, Louisiana has
the highest state imprisonment
rate, yet its governor recently
announced a deal to reduce the
state’s prison population by 10
percent—an initiative that will
save Louisiana taxpayers an esti-
mated $78 million annually. Right
now, 4 of the 10 top states with the
highest incarceration rates are pur-
How about working to keep as
many people as we can out of the
clutches of our broken, racially
and socio-economically unjust
criminal justice system in the
first place?
resources for serious, violent,
high-level offenders—flies in the
face of promising consensus that
has been steadily building among
civil rights and social justice or-
ganizations, states led by Con-
servative governors, and across
the partisan divide in Congress.
It seems everyone, except the De-
partment of Justice, understands
that flooding our prisons—and
keeping private prisons in busi-
ness to warehouse the anticipated
overflow from federal prisons—is
suing “smart on crime” criminal
justice reforms that safely reduce
our bloated prison population by
focusing on alternatives to pun-
ishment and improved re-entry
programs that increases the chanc-
es of ex-offenders never returning
to prison.
And we should go a step fur-
ther. How about working to keep
as many people as we can out of
the clutches of our broken, racial-
ly and socio-economically unjust
criminal justice system in the first
place?
As a nation, we must agree to
prioritize prevention and address
crime before it happens. That
means looking at—and effec-
tively treating—the root causes
of crimes. It means, among other
things, housing the homeless, re-
moving the heavy price tag and
stigma around mental health and
mental health services, feeding the
hungry, ensuring a quality educa-
tion in every zip code, and provid-
ing work tied to living and gender
equitable wages.
The Department of Justice is
moving in the wrong direction
and a course correction is critical.
The resistance, in all its forms and
arenas, remains firm, especially
among the states, which bear the
fiscal brunt of policies that call for
the indiscriminate filling of jails
cells at a heavy cost to their bud-
gets and the safety of their citizens.
A growing number of states are
reluctant to follow the Department
of Justice’s lead, and we hope
more states come to the realization
that crime can be reduced through
a variety of methods that don’t in-
volve throwing the book at people
who can be rehabilitated, while
keeping the public safe.
We must resist the rollback. We
must retreat from the failed poli-
cies of the past, not return to them.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer of the
National Urban League.