Saturday, November 5, 2016
OFF PAGE ONE
PRISON: ‘If you are transgender, you have a one-in-six chance you’ll end up in prison’
Page 12A
East Oregonian
“(Michelle)
should be held
accountable for
her mistakes, but
I’m worried she’s
being damaged
in prison in a way
that isn’t fixable.”
Continued from 1A
Another TRCI inmate,
Brandon “Brandy” Nelson,
described the experience of
being a transgender woman
in a men’s prison through a
series of letters to the East
Oregonian.
“Being stuck in a men’s
prison has its obvious risks,”
Nelson wrote. “Being a
transgender woman in a
men’s prison is an up-and-
down rollercoaster ride.”
Nelson hopes to eventually
save money to legally change
her name and ultimately have
gender reassignment surgery.
She wants prison staff to
refer to her as “Ms.” instead
of “Mr.” and to have the right
to shower separately from
other inmates. She seeks to
wear a feminine hairstyle
without fear of being put in
segregation. She longs for
hormone treatments.
“I’m a normal woman like
anyone else,” Nelson wrote.
“I was just born with the
wrong body.”
She described her early
life as a boy who secretly
wished he was a girl. When
playing house with other
kids, he wanted to be the
mother. He remembers
participating in sports and
joining Boy Scouts at the
insistence of his mom.
“I used to buy and steal
girl’s clothing just to wear
them and feel right when
my family wasn’t around. It
always felt right being the
girl I was and am, but hiding
it was very hard for me.
Growing up I didn’t really fit
in anywhere.”
Nelson, like Wright,
found trouble after using
— Victoria Wright,
Michelle’s mother
Photo courtesy of Oregon ACLU Foundation
Michelle Wright (pictured in front in this family photo) says she felt like a female
inside since she was very young.
drugs and alcohol to numb
her frustrations. She landed
in prison for sexual crimes.
As with Wright, Nelson said
her requests for medical
treatment were denied or
ignored.
The Oregon ACLU sent
a demand letter on Nelson’s
behalf in February, threat-
ening litigation if demands
weren’t met.
———
Wright and Nelson aren’t
the only transgender inmates
in the Oregon prison system.
The ACLU fielded about
20 calls from current and
former transgender inmates
after initiating the lawsuit,
Dos Santos said. “We suspect
there are more out there.”
Research shows that
transgender people have a
much higher possibility of
being incarcerated — likely
the result of higher rates
of poverty, depression and
discrimination.
“If you are transgender,
you have a one-in-six chance
you’ll end up in prison in
your lifetime,” Dos Santos
said.
And prison, he said, can
be a dangerous and inhumane
place for a transgender
person.
No one knows the exact
number of transgender
persons in America, but
estimates run between about
700,000 and 1.4 million. The
Social Security Administra-
tion tracks people who actu-
ally change gender – 21,833
as of 2010. It’s difficult to get
an accurate read. Seventy-one
percent of respondents to the
2011 National Transgender
Discrimination Survey said
they hid their gender issues to
avoid discrimination.
Wright’s mother, Victoria
Wright, said in an ACLU
video that Michale was bright
and sweet as a child, but “it
was clear to both of us that
she was different.” Bullies
targeted her. She became
a withdrawn teenager and
eventually got lost in drugs
and alcohol to cope with
feelings of not belonging. She
broke the law.
“(Michelle) should be held
accountable for her mistakes,
but I’m worried she’s being
damaged in prison in a way
that isn’t fixable,” Victoria
Wright said. “In prison, she’s
been denied the medical care
she desperately needs. There
are many times Michelle has
become so despondent that
suicide seems to be her only
way out. It breaks my heart.”
———
The DOC has changed
policies and training proce-
dures, according to Nancy
Haque, Basic Rights Oregon
co-executive director. BRO,
an LGBT advocacy orga-
nization, assisted DOC in
developing policies regarding
classification, health care
and housing for transgender
inmates.
“The DOC has made
significant progress in intake
procedures for transgender
inmates,” Haque said. “The
DOC has specific policies
to keep transgender people
safe.”
DOC
communication
manager Betty Bernt couldn’t
talk about ongoing litigation,
but verified that BRO “is
assisting the department
in its internal review of
policies, procedures and
practices affecting trans-
gender inmates.” She said
the collaboration resulted in
the adoption of an Oregon
Administrative Rule.
“The rule establishes DOC
policy to assess, review, and
manage inmates who present
with nonconforming gender
at intake on a case-by-case
basis, in a respectful manner,
considering each inmate’s
individual
circumstances,
including the individual’s
physical sexual character-
istics, gender identification,
physical
presentation,
behavior, and programming
needs,” Bernt said in an
email to the East Oregonian.
Over the past two years,
Basic Rights Oregon gave a
training called Transgender
101 to more than 200 correc-
tions staff. Haque hopes all of
this translates into increased
access to transgender-related
health care for transgender
people in the prison system.
“The DOC has a moral
and ethical obligation to
provide transgender inmates
with the same standard of
care as other inmates incar-
cerated in our state,” she said.
Wright’s lawsuit joins
others filed in other states
by transgender inmates. In
February, a case brought by
Ashley Diamond, a trans-
gender inmate at the Baldwin
State Prison in Milledgeville,
Georgia, ended with the state
agreeing to pay $250,000.
Diamond sued after hormone
treatments she had started
before prison were cut
off. Georgia has changed
its policy — transgender
inmates in state prisons are
now eligible for hormone
therapy and other treatments.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
REED: Funeral services will be held Nov. 11
Continued from 1A
Will Anderson via AP
In this Oct. 19 photo, Will Anderson, president of
the Native Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corp., stands inside
his Native corporation’s new indoor hydroponics
farm in Kotzebue, Alaska. The goal of the venture is
to grow kale, lettuces and other greens year-round,
despite the region’s unforgiving climate.
Arctic farming: Town
defies icy conditions
with hydroponics
By RACHEL D’ORO
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
— The landscape is virtually
treeless around a coastal hub
town above Alaska’s Arctic
Circle, where even summer
temperatures are too cold for
boreal roots to take hold.
Amid these unforgiving
conditions, a creative kind
of farming is sprouting up in
the largely Inupiat commu-
nity of Kotzebue.
A subsidiary of a local
Native corporation is using
hydroponics
technology
to grow produce inside an
insulated, 40-foot shipping
container equipped with
glowing magenta LED
lights. Arctic Greens is
harvesting kale, various
lettuces, basil and other
greens weekly from the soil-
free system and selling them
at the supermarket in the
community of nearly 3,300.
“We’re learning,” Will
Anderson, president of the
Native Kikiktagruk Inupiat
Corp., said of the business
launched last spring. “We’re
not a farming culture.”
The venture is the first of
its kind north of the Arctic
Circle, according to the
manufacturer of Kotzebue’s
pesticide-free system. The
goal is to set up similar
systems in partnerships with
other rural communities far
from Alaska’s minimal road
system — where steeply
priced vegetables can be
more than a week in transit
and past their prime by the
time they arrive at local
stores.
There are other tools for
extending the short growing
season in a state with cold
soil. One increasingly
popular method involves
high tunnels, tall hoop-
shaped structures that cover
crops.
But the season can last
year-round with indoor
hydroponics, which uses
water and nutrients to grow
vertically stacked plants
rooted in a binding material
such as rock wool.
Anchorage-based
Vertical Harvest Hydro-
ponics,
which
builds
enclosed systems out of
transformed
shipping
containers, partnered with
Kikiktagruk. The 2-year-old
company also sold the
system to a farmer in the
rural town of Dillingham.
“Our vision is that this
can be a long-term solution
to the food shortage prob-
lems in the north,” said Ron
Perpich, a company founder.
But the operations have
challenges, including steep
price tags. Startup costs
in Kotzebue were around
$200,000, including the
customized freight container
and the price to fly it in a
C-130 transport plane from
Anchorage, 550 miles to the
southeast.
The town also relies
heavily on expensive diesel
power, so operations could
eat into profits.
In addition, moving
tender produce from its
moist, warm growing enclo-
sure to a frigid environment
can be challenging. And
farming can be a largely
foreign concept to Native
communities with deeply
imbedded traditions of
hunting and gathering.
Still, the potential bene-
fits outweigh the downsides,
according
to
Johanna
Herron, state market access
and food safety manager.
Grown with the correct
nutrient balance, hydro-
ponics produce is considered
just as safe as crops grown
using other methods.
Newspapers for a time, and
when he sold his interest in the
company in 1984 it owned 18
newspapers across the Pacific
Northwest.
Smith, a former U.S.
congressman,
said
he
considered Reed a friend and
enjoyed their time working
together.
“He was a good person,”
Smith said. “He always
worked real hard in whatever
community he was in.”
He said Reed had a reputa-
tion as a good storyteller and
“definitely had a lot of friends
in the newspaper industry.”
Reed was an influential
figure in Hermiston during
significant years of growth.
Roe Gardner, former owner
of RoeMark’s Men’s and
Western Wear, said that
during Reed’s years with the
Hermiston Herald there was
“not much that happened
in Hermiston that he didn’t
know about.”
“He was one of those
guys who wasn’t afraid to go
to the city council and ask
questions,” Gardner said. “He
might have stirred the pot,
but he cared very much about
Hermiston.”
Gardner said Reed, who
was very involved in the
advertising side of the paper,
gained the trust and respect of
many local business owners
who chose to advertise in the
Herald.
Contributed photo
Members of the Hermiston Development Corporation pose for a photo. Jerry Reed
(top row, second from right) was one of the charter members of the organization.
Others in the photo include: (back row) Tom Harper, then-city manager of Hermis-
ton; Russ Dorran of Umatilla Electric Cooperative, Joe Burns of Burns Mortuary;
and Walt Eiring; (front row) Bruce Giddings; Walt Pearson; Doris Bounds of Inland
Empire Bank; A.F. Rohrman of Rohrman Motors; and L.A. Moore.
“You couldn’t say no to
him, because he knew what
he was doing,” Gardner said.
Bill Bighaus, a former
sports editor who came to
the Hermiston Herald as a
reporter in 1976 at the age of
22, called Reed a “towering
figure” who was at first
quite intimidating to a young
reporter.
“You know you have those
most unforgettable characters
in your life, and Jerry Reed
was mine,” Bighaus said.
Once he got over being
intimidated,
however,
Bighaus said he quite enjoyed
his years working with Reed
and getting to know his
family, who all played roles
in the Herald at various times
(his daughter Shannon Paxton
is the office coordinator there
currently).
He said he believed the
Herald grew so much under
Reed in part because Reed
saw it as the “scrapbook of
Hermiston.” He emphasized
community reporting, with no
Little League game too small
to give parents a photo to cut
out of the newspaper and hang
on the refrigerator. But his
penchant for getting out on the
streets and talking to everyone
also brought in bigger scoops
as well.
“The Herald was really
relevant back in those days,”
Bighaus said. “We broke a lot
of news and Jerry’s guidance
had a lot to do with that.”
Reed was born June 15,
1935, in Portland, Oregon. He
began his newspaper career
in Camas, Washington, and
married advertising manager
Dolores Thompson Bartlett
during his time there. After her
death, he later married Penny
Harris and is survived by her
along with five children and
seven grandchildren.
Funeral services will be
held on Friday, Nov. 11, at 1
p.m. at Our Lady of Angels
Catholic Church, 565 W.
Hermiston Ave., in Hermiston.
CREDITS: DOJ reviewing projects for potential violations
Continued from 1A
found no “direct” evidence
of fraud in the administration
of the BETC program, they
forwarded a host of projects
that received credits under
suspicious circumstances to
the Attorney General’s Office
for further review.
A list of those suspicious
projects — including multiple
projects at the same site
address and projects that
exceeded costs eligible for
the credits — was released
publicly last week.
The Department of Justice,
through a spokeswoman, said
earlier this week that DOJ
was reviewing the projects for
any potential civil or criminal
violations.
Some
members
of
the legislative committee
expressed interest in opportu-
nities to reclaim what auditors
estimated was about $347
million in tax credits issued
to projects that provoked
auditors’ “concern.”
Sen. Doug Whitsett,
R-Klamath Falls, described
some of the suspected prob-
lems outlined by auditors.
“...The people of Oregon
have not been reimbursed for
any of that,” Whitsett said.
“Where is the opportunity
within this BETC program,
if any, to claw back some of
this stuff, to get some of that
money back?”
One of the committee’s
chairs, Sen. Lee Beyer,
D-Springfield, agreed that
the department ought to
encourage DOJ to recoup any
“ill-gotten” money, but noted
that the committee should be
“realistic” about already-is-
sued credits and that the cost
of recouping those amounts
could be higher than what
may be recovered.
Under Oregon law, the
energy
department
can
suspend or revoke tax credits
in certain circumstances, such
as when the certification is
obtained by misrepresentation
or fraud, or when the facility
is not in operation.
However, that statute
did not include those exact
provisions throughout the
entirety of BETC’s lifetime,
and department officials have
previously said it can be diffi-
cult to recoup money, as some
tax credits were sold to other
entities.
Beyer added that the
attorney general is an inde-
pendently elected official.
“We have no control over
the Department of Justice,”
Beyer said.
Bentz said the approxi-
mately $300 million allegedly
lost to “concerning” projects
stuck in his mind.
“We just want to make
sure we’ve asked the right
people to look into that and
make sure we’re not leaving
$300 million somehow on the
table,” said Rep. Cliff Bentz,
R-Ontario.
More broadly, legislators
agreed, language should be
included in the committee’s
final
recommendations
reflecting “lessons learned”
from the failures of the BETC
program.
Bentz advocated for
determining what benefits
the state may have gotten out
of the program, although, he
said, “I don’t want to spend
huge amounts of time delving
through the wreckage.”
The Department of Ener-
gy’s future has been under
review by the committee
since January, after several
significant issues, including
the BETC program, came to
the fore.
In the first draft of a
report released this week,
the committee’s co-chairs,
Beyer and Rep. Paul Holvey,
D-Eugene, stated there is
a continued need for the
department and suggested the
governor appoint a board to
oversee it.
They identified problems
with a longstanding loan
program for small-scale local
energy projects, and noted
controversy over the process
of siting energy facilities
and over the annual fee that
energy suppliers are supposed
to pay to the department.
The discussion on poten-
tial clawbacks came in the
context of the committee’s
broader
recommendation
that future energy incentives
offered by the state ought to
track project performance and
outcome.