WWW . THESkANNER . COM
N OVEMBER 23, 2011
P ORTlAND , O REgON
V OluME XXXIII, N O . 56
25
CENTS
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
Benefits
Cut for
Moms?
PePPered Hero
Low-income mothers
in Washing ton may
lose dental coverage
by Traci Tate
uW news lab
PHOTO bY SuSn fried
W
ashington legislators could take
Medicaid dental benefits away
from more than 30,000 low-
income pregnant women later this month as
part of a plan to balance the state budget,
according to the Washington Dental Service
Foundation.
The foundation issued a statement last
week charging that such a decision could
lead to even higher dental costs in the future
and poorer health for mothers and their chil-
dren.
“The state Legislature will consider a long
list of difficult cuts, including the elimina-
tion of all non-emergency dental care for
low-income pregnant women,” said Diane
Riter, program manager with WDSF, in a
statement. “While policymakers will have
few easy choices, this drastic cut would
eventually make care even more expensive
since it delays inexpensive preventive care
along with restorative care for pregnant
women on Medicaid, increasing the severity
of their dental disease and the risk that their
children will develop tooth decay.”
When moms have good oral health their
children also benefit, Riter said. Even
though dental decay is preventable, it is the
No. 1 chronic disease among children,
[according to a study cited in the press
release].
“Prenatal care is emerging as a powerful,
cost-effective weapon to fight this disease,”
Riter added. “The Washington Dental
Service Foundation finds that when preg-
nant mothers receive regular dental care,
including preventive care, they pass less
cavity-causing bacteria to their babies
through saliva when they share food or
utensils. This lowers the chances their chil-
dren will struggle with dental disease,
which in turn reduces Medicaid treatment
costs.”
In 2009, Medicaid spent more than $55
Dorli Rainey, the longtime Seattle activist who has become the face of the Occupy Movement for getting pepper
sprayed in the face by Seattle police, was greeted as a hero Saturday, Nov. 19, by a crowd at Westlake Center. She
was the keynote speaker at Occupy Seattle’s Voices of the Revolution Rally.
Juveniles Held at Coffee Creek
Effort to keep teens out of adult jails expands to intake process
by lisa loving
Of The Skanner News
D
o you know a teenager
who has been processed
for
incarceration
through the adult Coffee Creek
Correctional Facility?
The nonprofit Partnership for
Safety and Justice wants to
know how juveniles are being
treated there, as part of a
research project to bolster new
legislation keeping youths out
of adult jails.
Youth advocates cite research
See benefiTS on page 3
indeX
showing that teens incarcerated
in adult jails are at increased
risk for physical and sexual
assault, and when held in isola-
tion can face an increased risk
of suicide and attempted sui-
cide.
“The consequences of juve-
niles in adult prisons are very
serious and that’s why we at
Partnership for Safety and
Justice are working to address
that issue,” says the group’s
associate director Shannon
White.
The Partnership is a nonprofit
group working on prison reform
issues in Oregon. It is supported
by members who have direct
experience in the criminal jus-
tice system, particularly fami-
lies of incarcerated and former-
ly-jailed offenders.
During the last legislative ses-
sion the Partnership helped pass
HB 2707, which helps to keep
youth who are charged as adults
out of jail, pretrial.
“Research shows kids who
have contact with the adult
criminal justice system are
much less likely to be successful
when they get out than youth
who are kept in the juvenile jus-
tice system,” White says.
While
Coffee
Creek
Correctional Facility is consid-
ered to be the state’s women’s
prison, it also serves as the pro-
cessing center for newly-con-
victed male offenders.
Youth who are charged and
convicted as adults often —
even if they’re going to serve
their sentence in an Oregon
youth authority facility — can
See JailS on page 8
Federal Drug Strategy Pushes Treatment
News ......2,3,6,8,10,11
Drug Czar says new policy intended to treat addiction as an illness
Opinion ..................4,5
by Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
A & E .........................7
Healthy Food.............9
Bids/Classifieds ........11
A
bout 20 million U.S. adults, more
than one in 10 of us, regularly use
illegal drugs. And for years, the War
on Drugs has sent millions of drug users,
growers and sellers to prison, branded as
felons. The toll on communities of color has
been steep, with African Americans and
Hispanics incarcerated for drug offenses at a
rate 50 percent higher than for Whites.
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske says the
administration’s new drug policies will
usher in a more enlightened public health
approach, based on science and what we
know works. So what’s different?
“This new way of thinking is focused on
breaking the cycle of drug abuse, crime and
incarceration,” Kerlikowske told reporters
Monday.
“Recognizing that addiction is a disease
and not a moral failure or a failure to find
God, that people can and do recover by the
tens of thousands, and they can be off our
tax dollars and back with their families.”
The National Drug Control Strategy for
2011 calls for widespread changes in polic-
See TreaTmenT on page 3