Established in 1970
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Volume XLVIII • Number 46
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • November 27, 2019
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Justice
Disparities
Persist
Fairness of legal
system challenged
from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., it’s open to anyone.
Camberg’s organization, the Sunshine
Division, was started back in the 1920s as
a relief organization for police officers who
lost their jobs during the Great Depression,
and carries on to this day, providing food
and clothing for anyone in need at two lo-
cations, 687 N. Thompson St. and 12436
S.E. Stark.
Temple, director of public affairs for
Fred Meyer, said the goal of Dragon Mart
-- to relieve food anxiety not only for stu-
dents but for those in the neighborhood in
need -- is also a goal of Freddy’s.
“This is a great project and we’re ex-
cited to underwrite and fund it,” Temple
Racial and ethnic disparities in Mult-
nomah County’s criminal justice system
continue as a persistent problem where
black and Latino people are overrepresent-
ed at nearly every stage of law enforce-
ment, from arrests to prison terms, accord-
ing to a new report released Monday.
“The prevalence and persistence of
these disparities undermines the notion
of ‘justice’ in our criminal legal system,
concluded the report by the Oakland, Ca-
lif.-based W. Haywood Burns Institute.
The study was done to update figures
from a 2015 county report and was institut-
ed as part of a safety and challenge grant to
promote equity and reduce disparities from
the MacAuthur Foundation.
According to the new figures, members
of the local black population were 8.3 times
more likely than local white residents to be
in jail pending trial in 2019, and 4.8 times
as likely as whites to have a case prosecut-
ed, and 4.6 times as likely as whites to have
a case resulting in conviction.
Latinos fared better, but were still 1.8
times more likely than whites to be in jail
pending trial in 2019, 1.3 times as likely
as whites to have a case go to trial, and 1.2
times as likely as white people to have a
case end in conviction.
Black adults also had longer stays in
jail. In 2019, white adults averaged 11.9
days in jail, while black adults averaged
16.8 days, Latino adults averaged 17 days,
Asian and Pacific Islanders 13.5 days, and
Native Americans 14 days.
Some progress for racial equity was
found for the total number of people of
color in the justice system, finding that it
decreased over that period and the relative
likelihood of receiving a prison sentence
for those individuals also decreased.
But Multnomah County District Attor-
C ontinued on p age 5
C ontinued on p age 4
photo by b everly C orbell /t he p ortland o bserver
Students from Ockley Green Middle School in north Portland volunteer to help run the school’s Dragon Mart, a free food bank
benefiting kids who don’t have enough to eat as well as assisting other families and people in the entire neighborhood. The
students pictured are (from left) are Shamaya Daniels, Addyson Razo, Beatrice Pierson and Ilyarah Moteley.
In-school Grocery Feeds Families
Benefits go to entire
neighborhood
b everly C orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
It all started because of a mutual con-
cern: Kids who don’t have enough to eat.
After some brainstorming last spring
and more planning, the solution has come
with the opening of Dragon Mart, a free
grocery at Ockley Green Middle School
serving students, their families and people
who have food insecurity.
Kyle Camberg, executive director of the
Sunshine Division nonprofit, along with
Jeffery Temple of Fred Meyer teamed up
with Joyce Olivo of Self Enhancement,
by
Inc., and the result is a full mini-size store,
called Dragon Mart, with both fresh and
packaged food items. Volunteers help with
selections, but there are no cash registers.
“The likelihood kids will come into a
food pantry is pretty small,” Camberg said.
“But Jeffery and I and Ockley Green start-
ed talking and decided, we think we can
get together and make food accessible for
kids and the neighborhood, and it very
quickly turned into this.”
Dragon Mart is situated in the Sun
School portable building behind Ockley
Green, located at 6031 N. Montana Ave.,
and is open from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Tues-
days for families and students from the
school and its elementary feeder schools,
Chief Joseph and Beach. On Thursday, also