Local News
Prison
Crisis Team
crime.
Psychopathic killers belong under lock
and key. And so do the ugly collection of
rapists, child molesters and thugs who are
included in this 2010 statistic. But the 67
percent figure also includes people who
likely pose little, if any, continuing threat.
All Measure 11 crimes are “person to per-
son” and included in that violent crime
statistic.
Take Robbery 2, for example. It’s a vio-
lent crime, but it includes the teenagers who
grab candy from a convenience store and
Myth 3. We don’t need the reforms
because incarceration rates are not growing
as fast as predicted.
The state Office of Economic Analysis
projects the prison population of 14,300
will jump to 16,239 within a decade. That’s
a drop of 106 from the last long-term fore-
cast, but not a divergence from the current
trend. Oregon’s incarceration rate grew
three times faster than the national average
in the last 10 years. And a growing propor-
tion of prisoners are there for nonviolent
crimes.
Will HB 3194 fix this? That’s
what it’s designed to do.
Oregon’s incarceration rate
grew three times faster than
the national average in the
last 10 years
push a customer over on their way out of the
door. It includes people who have pretended
to have a weapon, or have brandished a fake
weapon. And it includes people involved in
a crime, during which an accomplice acts
violently—the getaway driver in a robbery
where a weapon is used as a threat, for
example.
Holding people accountable for their
actions is important, but if public safety is
the issue, they clearly are not all equally
violent.
What would HB 3194 change? It won’t
change the statistic. But it would allow
judges some leeway in sentencing for three
Measure 11 crimes: Robbery 2, Assault 2,
and Sex Abuse 1, which can all vary widely
in severity. Judges could take into consid-
eration a person’s criminal history and the
circumstances of the crime when dishing
out sentences.
Myth 4. Oregon’s juvenile jus-
tice system is a model that others
follow.
Oregon law violates national
and international recommenda-
tions on how to treat young
offenders. The UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child says: “the deten-
tion of children should always be a measure
of last resort and for the shortest appropriate
period of time.”
Acres of research findings show youth
offenders are not equivalent to adults and
should not be treated as adults.
But Oregon automatically charges teens
aged 15 and up as adults when they are
accused of a Measure 11 crime. And even
younger children can be charged and sen-
tenced as adults.
Two-thirds of teens who offend don’t
commit further crimes. But when those
youth are incarcerated in large institutions
alongside other offenders, they are less like-
ly to mature out of criminal behavior.
Half of Oregon’s counties still send teens
to adult jails. And when they are in adult jail
they are locked in cells for up to 23 hours a
day. Technically that is not called solitary
confinement, but it causes similar damage
PHOTO BY HELEN SILVIS
continued from page 1
Portland Police Bureau introduced the staff of its new Behavioral Health Unit
April 30. The unit pairs police officers with mental health specialists. Pictured
here from left: Officer Amy Bruner-Denhert, Crisis Intervention Team
coordinator; Dinah Brooks, MSW; Averyl Growdon, LPC; and Officer Josh
Silverman, who all work on the mobile crisis unit; and Cindy Hackett of LCSW.
to youth.
Will HB 3194 fix this? No. But it will free
up funds for evidence based programs and
allow a judge to review mandatory sen-
tences after youth have served half of their
sentence.
Myth 5. District Attorneys oppose crimi-
nal justice reform because they care about
crime victims.
They may care about crime victims, but
what Oregon’s District Attorneys have
failed to acknowledge is that they have a
dog in this fight. Prosecutors want to keep
the system as it is because they hold the
power and they like it that way.
A 2004 study by the Rand Corporation on
the impact of Measure 11 noted that during
plea deals prosecutors use the threat of
Measure 11 charges and mandatory mini-
mum sentences to secure longer sentences
for lesser crimes.
The study says:
“In shifting authority from the judge to
the prosecutor, Measure 11 has altered
courtroom dynamics significantly, so that
the primary responsibility for sentencing
decisions now rests with the prosecutor, an
advocate for the state, rather than with the
judge, a neutral arbiter of justice.”
Prosecutors say they can be trusted to use
discretion, pointing for example, to Ore-
gon’s low rate of incarceration for
marijuana offenses. But plea bargains go on
behind closed doors and with no transparen-
cy about how decisions are made.
Will HB 3194 fix this? It makes a small
change in the balance of power toward
judges and corrections staff.
STEM
continued from page 2
released the school-raised fish into Drano
Lake near the Bonneville Dam.
The students also studied food and nutri-
tion. And they investigated how far you’d
have to go to get nutritious food in different
neighborhoods, and how much it cost.
One girl said her mother had changed her
shopping habits after the class studied
which foods are better for health. But the
family soon found that healthier foods can
be more expensive, and hard to find in their
neighborhood.
The class went on to take action, sending
a letter to President Obama about unequal
access to healthy foods.
“It’s not fair that people with higher
incomes can get healthy food, and people
with lower incomes are stuck,” a student
said.
Merkley also visited a third-grade class-
room where students were studying pill
bugs, which they also know as isopods.
Sen. Merkley’s bill, “The STEM Educa-
into more classrooms
-- to make sure teachers are trained to
teach STEM subjects
-- to close achievement gaps, and
One girl said her mother had changed her
shopping habits after the class studied which
foods are better for health, then sent letters to
the President about the cost of healthier food
tion for the Global Economy Act,” was
introduced last week in the U.S. Senate. The
bill would focus on middle and high
schools, sending grants to states:
-- to bring high quality STEM education
-- to make sure students from all back-
grounds have opportunities for careers in
science, engineering and technology.
“America is spending too little on educa-
tion and shortchanging our economic
McCollister was suspended for 5.5
months before an arbitrator lifted the sus-
pension.
The arbitrator, John C Truesdale, ordered
the city to pay McCollister’s lost wages and
expunge the suspension from his record
because the Portland Police Bureau didn’t
conduct a full internal affairs investigation.
Such investigations are required by bureau
policy in cases where officers use deadly
force.
Kroeker was forced to resign that same
year.
On Dec. 17 of 2012, the U.S. Department
of Justice filed a complaint against the city,
based on an 18-month investigation of the
police bureau. The City and justice officials
filed a settlement agreement at the same
time.
As of Feb. 20, the alliance, justice depart-
ment, City and the Portland Police
Association have been in mediation talks to
try and resolve their differences on police
reforms.
future,” Merkley said. “We need to make
sure that our children are the most educated
and well prepared for the global economy.
“That starts with more STEM education
in our schools to train the next generation of
engineers, while also exposing our middle
and high school students to career technical
education relevant for manufacturing, weld-
ing, and woodworking.”
Merkley also plans to introduce another
bill that would create grants for practical
career and technical education.
“It’s for what we used to call shop class-
es”, Merkley said. “Because oftentimes
when people build things with their hands in
metal shop or wood shop, it takes the sci-
ence world and it makes it very real. There’s
a lot of joy that comes with actually making
things.”
Vigil
continued from page 3
from the traffic stop. McCollister told
investigators that most of his body was
inside the car when he tried to remove her.
He tried to pull her out by her hair, pepper
spray her and use a Taser but all attempts
were unsuccessful. When she put the car
into drive, he fired his gun because he
thought his life was in danger, he claimed.
Police Chief Mark Kroeker and former
Mayor Vera Katz, then police commission-
er,
disciplined
McCollister
for
unsatisfactory performance.
The justice department concluded Port-
land police engaged in a ‘pattern or
practice’ of violating the civil rights of peo-
ple with mental illness, or those thought to
have mental illness.
Sunday’s vigil begins at 5 p.m. and mem-
bers of James’ family will be in attendance.
For more information on the alliance, go
to www.albinaministerialcoalition.org.
May 1, 2013 The Portland Skanner Page 3