Local News
Crime
It’s the Season
look on how we’re spending our public
safety dollars. Let’s begin with a focus on
victims’ services, re-entry programs and
substance abuse treatment.
“In my view we should all be focused on
shifting our public safety spending to pre-
vention-based strategies, such as victims’
services, addiction treatment and recovery,
and re-entry programs,” she said. “After all
last year 4500 inmates were released from
prison. Where are they all going? Are we
taking care of them and making sure they
aren’t going to be back in prison in six
months?
“Evidence-based law enforcement strate-
gies, prison programs, including mental
health treatment and vocational program-
ming: We need to prepare people to succeed
when they return to the community. We
need to help people rejoin society and not
live a lifetime on the fringe.”
Rosenblum defeated Dwight Holton in the
Democratic primary election. She was
appointed by Gov. Kitzhaber to serve out
the term of AG John Kroger, who resigned
June 29 and is now president of Reed Col-
lege. Rosenblum will face Republican AG
nominee, James Buchal, in the November
election.
About 60 people attended the Partnership
for Safety and Justice event. The group
brings together victims of crime, people
who have committed crimes, and their fam-
PHOTO BY HELEN SILVIS
continued from page 1
Portland’s high school football season kicked off its second week with a cross-town rivalry game between Jefferson
and Grant at Grant High School. The game was disappointing for Jeff fans, whose team lost by 58-12. Next games
are Sept. 14: Lincoln goes to Westview (7:30p.m. ); Sunset plays at Grant (7 p.m.); Banks plays Benson at Marshall (7
p.m.); Franklin plays at Wilson (7 p.m.); Madison plays at Jefferson (7 p.m.); and Roosevelt plays at Cleveland (7 p.m.)
re-focus spending on programs that have
been proved to reduce offending, such as
prevention and after-prison programs.
PSJ also seeks to mandate that young peo-
ple are placed in youth facilities not in adult
jails. Some counties, for example, Mult-
nomah and Clackamas, already have this
policy, but in other parts of the state, youth
routinely end up in adult prisons.
“We have an incredible opportuni-
ty in the next 10 months to pass his-
toric changes to the criminal justice
system, David Rogers, PSJ’s execu-
tive director, told supporters. “We
could begin to see a much smarter
approach to reducing victimization
and crime.”
National research by the Pew Cen-
ter has looked at the costs and bene-
fits of lengthy sentences. “Time
Served: the High Cost, Low Return
of Longer Prison Terms,” crunched num-
bers from across the country and found
prison sentences have increased by 36 per-
cent. Longer sentences have contributed to
the decline in crime during the 1990’s, the
report says, and probably can be credited
for between a quarter and a third of the
drop.
“But criminologists and policy makers
increasingly agree that we have reached a
‘tipping point’ with incarceration, where
additional imprisonment will have little if
any effect on crime,” according to the
report.
“Research clearly shows there is little
return on public dollars for locking up low-
risk offenders for increasingly long periods
of time and, in the case of certain non-vio-
lent offenders, there is little return on lock-
ing them up at all.”
The report notes that the 17 states which
have cut prison sentences also have seen
crime fall. And the researchers point out
that we now have evidence-based programs
that prevent and reduce criminal behavior.
“…there are more effective, less expen-
sive ways to handle non-violent offenders
than lengthy spells of incarceration…”
Efforts to rein in costs and reduce the neg-
ative effects of prison, which can include
increased criminal behavior, have brought
together policymakers from across the
political spectrum. Republicans, Sen. Jackie
Winters and Rep. Andy Olson sit on Ore-
gon’s Commission on Public Safety along-
side Democrats, Sen. Floyd Prozanski and
Rep. Chris Garrett.
Significant opposition is expected, how-
ever. Not everyone agrees that reducing
prison sentences is necessary and safe.
Steve Doell, a co-founder of Crime Victims
United and the Anti-Crime Alliance, which
helped create Measure 11 and Measure 57,
has created a new group called The “Truth
in Sentencing Project.” Doell’s group has
launched a radio campaign in support of
current sentencing policy.
The ad says that 70 percent of people in
Oregon prisons are there for, “violent
crimes and serious sex offenses including
felony assault, armed robbery, kidnapping,
manslaughter, child molestation, rape,
attempted murder, and murder.”
A factchecking investigation by Politi-
fact, concluded that 65 percent of people in
jail are there for crimes that can automati-
cally be considered violent. That finding,
however, draws no distinction between a
person who drove a getaway car during a
robbery and someone who threatened a
cashier with a gun, if both are convicted of
robbery.
to drug cartels or underground,’’ said Brian
Vicente, a lawyer working for Colorado’s
Campaign To Regulate Marijuana Like
Alcohol.
But there are numerous questions about
the projections, and since no state has legal-
ized marijuana for anything but medical
purposes, the actual result is anyone’s
``It’s difficult to size up a market even if
it’s legal, certainly if it’s illegal,’’ said Jef-
frey Miron, a Harvard University economist
who has studied the national tax implica-
tions of the legalization of several drugs.
In Colorado, the $60 million figure comes
from Christopher Stiffler, an economist for
the nonpartisan Colorado Center on Law &
``You can basically take advantage of
economies of scale, and the price of mari-
juana will go down and government can
come in and capture the difference,’’ Stiffler
said.
The biggest unknown: Would the federal
government allow marijuana markets to
materialize?
When California voters considered mari-
juana legalization in 2010, U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder warned that the federal
government would not look the other way
and allow a state marijuana market in defi-
ance of federal drug law. Holder vowed a
month before the election to ``vigorously
enforce’’ federal marijuana prohibition. Vot-
ers rejected the measure.
Holder hasn’t been as vocal this year, but
that could change. In early September, nine
former heads of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration called on Holder to issue
similar warnings to Colorado, Oregon and
Washington.
That political uncertainty could translate
into states spending thousands of dollars to
defend the laws, critics say.
``I think it’s important that this ballot lay
out for the voters how much litigation is
going to result from this,’’ said Colorado
assistant Attorney General Michael
Dougherty, a critic of the legislation.
The report notes that the
17 states which have cut
prison sentences also have
seen crime fall
ilies, to advocate for a prevention-focused
approach to public safety.
The group has just launched a new cam-
paign, Stand Strong for Safety and Savings,
which will seek to end mandatory minimum
sentences, give judges more discretion, and
Pot
continued from page 1
whether residents can smoke pot, the propo-
nents promise big rewards, though esti-
mates of tax revenue vary widely:
Colorado’s campaign touts money for
school construction. Ads promote the meas-
ure with the tag line, ``Strict Regulation.
Fund Education.’’ State analysts project
somewhere between $5 million and $22
million a year. An economist whose study
was funded by a pro-pot group projects a
$60 million boost by 2017.
Washington’s campaign promises to
devote more than half of marijuana taxes to
substance-abuse prevention, research, edu-
cation and health care. Washington state
analysts have produced the most generous
estimate of how much tax revenue legal pot
could produce, at nearly $2 billion over five
years.
Oregon’s measure, known as the
Cannabis Tax Act, would devote 90 percent
of recreational marijuana proceeds to the
state’s general fund. Oregon’s fiscal ana-
lysts haven’t even guessed at the total rev-
enue, citing the many uncertainties inherent
in a new marijuana market. They have pro-
jected prison savings between $1.4 million
and $2.4 million a year if marijuana use was
legal without a doctor’s recommendation.
``We all know there’s a market for mari-
juana, but right now the profits are all going
‘We all know there’s a market for marijuana, but
right now the profits are all going to drug cartels
or underground’
—Brian Vicente, Colorado’s Campaign To Regulate Marijuana
Like Alcohol
guess.
Among the problems: No one knows for
certain how many people are buying black-
market weed. No one knows how demand
would change if marijuana were legal. No
one knows how much prices would drop, or
even what black-market pot smokers are
paying now, though economists generally
use a national estimate of $225 an ounce
based on self-reported prices compiled
online.
Policy. He looked at the state’s potential
marijuana market in a study funded by the
pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance. The
figure comes from a combination of state
and local taxes and projected savings to law
enforcement.
Marijuana smokers and dealers, he
argued, pay a premium now because the
drug is illegal, and if government can find a
way to capture that excess, tax collections
should rise.
September 12, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 3