November 28, 2018 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
“
Cash bail
preys on
the poor
and mi-
norities
psychiatric nurse prac-
titioner for Washington
County jails. “Bails are
not set on a person’s abil-
ity to pay and so people
languish in jail having
not been convicted of a
crime.”
According to a report
from the Sheriff ’s Office,
while an average pre-tri-
al stay in the county jail
is 12 days, some people
can be incarcerated up to
months and even years.
On Nov. 1, 162 people had
been behind bars for at
least five months, or 150
days, without a convic-
tion.
For African Ameri-
cans, incarceration rates
fare far worse than for
White defendants.
In Multnomah County,
Black people represent
27 percent of people in
prisons and jails yet only
six percent of the popu-
lation. Moreover, a 2016
report found that Ore-
gon imprisons African
Americans at the sev-
enth highest rate in the
nation. In other words,
for every 1,000 Black Or-
egonians, about 21 are in
prison.
The PFF’s seasonal
fundraiser falls in step
with similar initiatives
focused on bailing out
defendants during times
of celebration. Last May,
Migrants
when PFF was formed,
Portland-area activists
raised over $20,000 in an
effort to bail out Black
mothers so they could be
reunited with their chil-
dren for Mother’s Day.
Women in general are
the fastest-growing pop-
ulation of people in jails
and prisons, and Black
women are dispropor-
tionately represented in
correctional facilities na-
tionwide.
In June, the PFF contin-
ued to post bail for Black
mothers and fathers in
honor of Father’s Day
and Juneteenth.
Ultimately, these bail-
out campaigns are aimed
at highlighting what the
PFF sees is an inevitable
end to the money bail
system in Oregon.
“The potential conse-
quences are devastating,”
said Spencer, of people
jailed while awaiting bail.
“People lose their em-
ployment, housing and
possibly their children.”
“Most harmful, in my
opinion, are people who
take plea deals just to
avoid rotting in jail be-
cause they can’t pay their
bail,” she continued. “That
isn’t justice. The wealthy
don’t have to make those
type of choices.”
Last August, California
became the first state to
abolish money bail, effec-
tive in October 2019.
To date, the PFF has
spent almost $31,000 on
posting bail for 14 peo-
ple “whose continued in-
carceration was simply
because they could not
afford to purchase their
freedom,” it stated in a
press release.
Anyone can make a
tax-deductible donation
of any amount through
the PFF website at www.
portlandfreedomfund.
org.
Zoo Names Utpal Passi
New Deputy Director
Utpal Passi, formerly vice president of guest relations at the Philadelphia
Zoo, joined the Oregon Zoo this month as the new deputy director of
operations. His duties include overseeing the zoo’s guest services, strategic
initiatives and business partnerships. For the past seven years, Passi has
worked at the Philadelphia Zoo, where he was responsible for driving the
overall quality of guest experience and revenue operations — everything
from admissions and membership operations to stroller rentals and
face-painting. Prior to that, he worked in the food service management
industry for Sodexo. Born and raised in India, Passi moved to the U.S. 17
years ago, earning a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management from
Pennsylvania’s Widener University and an MBA from Temple University’s
Fox School of Business. A father of three, he looks forward to exploring the
Pacific Northwest with his wife and children.
Standard
PHOTO COURTESY OF OREGON ZOO
transfer to another law
enforcement
agency,
or simple because they
couldn’t afford their bail.
“Cash bail preys on the
poor and minorities,”
said Gina Spencer, found-
er of PFF and part-time
cont’d from pg 1
with a disability -- for leadership
roles.
It’s modeled on the Charles Jor-
dan Standard, adopted by the city
of Portland at the beginning of
2016, and in turn on the National
Football League’s Rooney Rule,
which the league adopted in 2003
and which requires teams to in-
terview at least one person of col-
or for every leadership position.
Oregon adopted an academic
counterpart to the Rooney Rule
in 2009, requiring colleges and
universities to interview a per-
son of color for available coach-
ing positions.
“We named it after Charles Jor-
dan and Gladys McCoy because
no one knows who Dan Rooney
is unless you’re a Pittsburgh
Steelers fan like I am,” said Sam
Sachs, a Portland Parks and Rec-
reation ranger and the advocate
who helped push for all three pol-
icies. “But we also wanted to hon-
or Charles Jordan and McCoy’s
work.”
Jordan served on Portland’s city
council from 1974 to 1984 and was
the first African American to do
so. McCoy, the first Black woman
elected to any public office in the
state of Oregon, served on the
board of Portland Public Schools
from 1970 until 1978 and on the
Multnomah County Board of
Commissioners from 1978 until
1984.
Both Jordan and McCoy have
passed away, but Sachs worked
with their families to help design
the guidelines, and he told The
Skanner it was at Jordan’s family’s
request that the policy be adopted
as a standard and not a rule.
The Gladys McCoy standard di-
rects the county to “ensure that
when a competitive recruitment
is utilized, the highest qualified
candidates of color and highest
“
I wasn’t look-
ing to punish
schools for not
doing it but to
change their
mindset around
hiring
qualified candidates from under-
represented communities within
the county are part of the hiring
interview process.” The resolu-
tion text also directs the county
to create a workgroup to develop
new hiring policies to be signed
and implemented at the start of
January 2019.
It also includes a clause requir-
ing the county to provide metrics
that measure progress toward
the policy goal. There is no such
clause in the Jordan standard and
perhaps as a result, Sachs said
he’s had trouble getting informa-
tion from the city about whether
it has in fact implemented the rec-
ommended hiring practices. He
added that academic institutions
have varied in their self-report-
ing about their hiring practices.
There’s also no penalty for not
following the guidelines, but
that’s not the point, Sachs said.
“I wasn’t looking to punish
schools for not doing it but to
change their mindset around
hiring,” Sachs told The Skanner.
Once institutions set out to hire
minorities into managerial roles,
they often change their hiring
and recruitment practices in
beneficial ways. And, nine years
after the passage of House Bill
3118, Oregon’s universities have
more diverse coaching staffs than
they once did. Sachs said he’s also
talked to Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
about introducing legislation that
would require the NCAA to adopt
its own Rooney Rule.
“I would encourage other pri-
vate businesses and government
agencies to adopt it. It’s a very
simple thing and it challenges
those businesses to do something
differently if they’re not already,”
Sachs said.
Read more at TheSkanner.com
cont’d from pg 3
Trump on the migrant issue while up-
holding Mexico’s longstanding posi-
tion of demanding better treatment for
migrants.
Ebrard told reporters Tuesday a key
administration goal is securing a U.S.
commitment to development projects
in Honduras, where the vast majority
of the migrants in the caravan come
from, as well as neighboring Guatema-
la, El Salvador and elsewhere in Cen-
tral America.
“What are we negotiating with the
United States? We want them to partic-
ipate in the project I just mentioned” to
create jobs in Central America. Asked
how much the U.S. should contribute,
Ebrard suggested the figure should be
at least $20 billion.
“Mexico by itself is going to invest
in our own territory during the next
administration, more than $20 billion,
and so any serious effort regarding
our brothers in El Salvador, Hondu-
ras, Guatemala, should be for a similar
amount,” Ebrard said.
Ebrard’s statements came as anxious
Tijuana residents closed down a school
next to a sports complex where thou-
sands of migrants have been camped
out for two weeks.
The move came after U.S. border
agents fired tear gas into Mexico to
“
Asked how much
the U.S. should con-
tribute, Ebrard sug-
gested the figure
should be at least
$20 billion
turn back a group of migrants who had
breached the border over the weekend.
The incident prompted Mexican au-
thorities to step up the police presence
around the shelter.
Citing fears for their children’s safe-
ty, the parents’ association of the Ga-
briel Ramos Milan elementary school
bought their own lock and chain and
closed the school’s gates. A sign said
the school would remain closed until
further notice.
Carmen
Rodriguez
said parents had been
calling for authorities to
do something since the
migrants arrived, add-
ing that her 9-year-old
daughter wouldn’t be re-
turning to classes until
they are gone.
“We are asking that
they be relocated,” Ro-
driguez said, noting
that some migrants had
Migrants travel in a truck from Mexicali to Tijuana, part of the migrant
approached the school
caravan, in Mexico Nov. 27. The mayor of Tijuana has declared a
grounds to ask children
for money and use the humanitarian crisis in his border city and says that he has asked the
school’s
bathrooms. United Nations for aid to deal with the approximately 5,000 Central
Some even smoked mari- American migrants who have arrived in the city.
juana around its perime-
The migrants themselves were ur-
ter walls, she said.
gently exploring their options amid
She said the parents worry about an- a growing feeling that they had little
ti-migrant protesters converging on hope of making successful asylum bids
the sports complex again, as they did in the United States or of crossing the
last week. “If they come here and there border illegally.
is a confrontation, we will be caught in
the middle,” she said.
Read more at TheSkanner.com
PHOTO BY AP PHOTO/RAMON ESPINOSA
Bail