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East Oregonian
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Sentencing reforms seek to reduce incarceration rate, racial profiling
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Hillsboro resident
Beth Hacker could have served
nearly three years in prison for
petty theft crimes she committed
during her struggle with addiction
to prescription opioid, oxycodone.
Hacker, a mother of four, was
convicted of multiple identity theft
counts for forging two checks
for $8 and $30 and giving false
information on a rental assistance
application.
Measure 57, passed by voters
in 2008, set mandatory minimum
sentences for drug and property
crimes.
A legislative effort in 2015
to keep families together spared
Hacker that fate.
She spent nine months in prison
before being allowed to participate
in a work-release program called
the Family Sentencing Alterna-
tive Program and designed by
state lawmakers in 2015 to keep
offenders with their children.
“We are beginning to see a public health
approach to criminal justice that makes more
sense, but it should be considered only an ini-
tial step. We need to move further.”
— Bobbin Singh, Oregon Justice Resource Center executive director
“Had I not had the program at
all, I would have been in prison for
30 months,” Hacker said.
During this year’s legislative
session, state lawmakers continued
to reform sentences and expand
prison alternative programs in an
effort to reduce incarceration and
curtail disproportionate felony drug
convictions of people of color.
“This was a step in the right
direction,” said Bobbin Singh,
executive director of the Oregon
Justice Resource Center. “We are
beginning to see a public health
approach to criminal justice that
makes more sense, but it should be
considered only an initial step. We
need to move further.”
Oregon House Bill 3078
expanded the eligibility criteria for
the Family Sentencing Alternative
Pilot Program so more parents can
participate.
The
legislation
decreased
sentences for Measure 57 crimes
first-degree theft and identity theft
from 18 to 13 months, but added
more community supervision.
Lawmakers targeted those two
crimes to try to reduce the women’s
prison population and avoid
opening a second state women’s
prison. Women are statistically
more likely to commit property
crimes than violent crimes.
The bill also increases the limit
for a supportive early-release
program, known as short-term tran-
sitional leave, from 90 to 120 days.
House Bill 2355, crafted as an
anti-racial profiling bill, reduces
sentences for possession of six
controlled substances by down-
grading the crimes from felonies to
misdemeanors.
People of color are dispropor-
tionately charged with drug crimes,
even though they use drugs at the
same rate as people who appear
Caucasian, Singh said.
Opposition to the changes
prompted lawmakers to include
previous convictions as a disqual-
ifying factor.
Singh said the disqualifying
factor still discriminates against
people of color, because they have
a greater rate of conviction.
“If the whole point of enacting
the law is to begin thinking about
addiction and substance abuse as
a public health issue but you put
in a disqualification for repeated
behavior, the law is not working
fully to do what it is purported to
do,” Singh said.
“We are talking about behavior
that by definition is repetitive.”
The bill requires the Oregon
Criminal Justice Commission to
examine the effects of the changes
on people of color.
Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany,
who said he was “100 percent
behind” the anti-racial profiling
measures
nevertheless
voted
against the bill.
“Measure 57 was driven because
people understand that the property
crimes that exist today 85 percent
of the time are done because of
drug use,” Olson said. “My concern
is … you are going to see property
crime go up at the same time.”
The United States has the
highest rate of incarceration in the
world, according to the Institute
for Criminal Policy Research at
Birkbeck University of London.
The nation represents about 4.4
percent of the world population and
22 percent of prisoners around the
world.
———
The Capital Bureau is a collab-
oration between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
New York eyes textalyzer to
bust drivers using cellphones
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A pair of combines harvest soft white wheat Tuesday in a field north of Helix.
WHEAT: More than half the state’s wheat
is grown in Umatilla and Morrow counties
Continued from 1A
head on a swivel, main-
taining the right speed and
direction so none of the
grain winds up spilled.
Bracher remembers last
year when he accidentally
overloaded his wagon, and
was forced to collect the
spillage with a shovel and
5-gallon bucket.
Now, Bracher says he
feels perfectly comfortable
operating the wagon’s high-
tech controls.
“After a while, it just
comes to you,” he said.
Wheat harvest is playing
out on farms across Umatilla
and Morrow counties, and
by most accounts local
growers are seeing average
to above-average yields
thanks to heavy spring rains
that finally put the kibosh on
a multi-year drought.
The hours may be long,
but Bracher — who is
preparing to enter seventh
grade at Helix School —
said he enjoys spending his
summers on the farm.
“It’s fun,” he said. “It’s
not an ordinary job.”
‘North country’
Bracher’s grandfather,
Cliff Bracher, is intimately
familiar with the area in and
around Helix. He calls it the
“north country,” a catch-all
name for the sprawling
dryland wheat ground north
of Pendleton.
Behind the wheel of his
pickup, Cliff cruises the
gravel roads that lead from
one bucolic farmhouse to
the next, reciting names of
landowners without missing
a beat. The north country is
a pretty tight-knit group of
family farms, he said, and
come harvest time it is not
unusual to see three genera-
tions out working the fields.
“The most grueling part
of the whole harvest is just
the long hours,” Cliff said.
“We start harvesting at
about 7:30 a.m., and we’ll
call it quits at about 8:30
p.m.”
At that pace, Cliff said
they can usually cut about
125 acres of wheat per
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A mound of soft white wheat grows in a pile manages by United Grain Corporation
outside of Helix.
day, per combine — and
that’s only if the weather
conditions don’t turn sour,
like they did last Thursday
when 40-mph wind gusts
blew down Juniper Canyon.
Windy conditions not only
increase the risk of field
fires, but can even blow
wheat right out of the truck.
Yields are so far looking
good, Cliff said, with some
fields likely producing
between 80-100 bushels per
acre. Combined with soft
white wheat prices that have
finally clawed their way
back above $5 out of Port-
land, he said most growers
will likely wind up breaking
even or doing better.
“This is a decent wheat
crop right here,” he said.
“It could have been a crop
insurance year.”
Back in Helix, Cliff stops
to chat with his son, Randy
Bracher, who began his day
at 5:30 a.m. spraying fallow
fields. Though harvest can
be stressful, Randy said it is
the culmination of a year’s
worth of hard work.
“Personally, this is my
vacation,” he said. “If you
make sure you have a good
crew ... it makes it fun.”
John Thompson, another
north country wheat grower
who farms around Kings
Corner Road, agreed that
harvest time is the highlight
of their year.
“That’s how we get our
bread and butter,” he said.
Improved yields
It certainly helps that this
year’s crop was bolstered by
favorable weather.
According to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s
National Agricultural Statis-
tics Service, Oregon wheat
production is expected to
come in at 43.3 million
bushels, which is up 22
percent over 2016. A little
more than half the state’s
wheat is grown in Umatilla
and Morrow counties.
Jason Middleton, region
manager for United Grain
Corporation in Pendleton,
said the combination of
increased moisture and
cooler temperatures bene-
fited wheat earlier in the
growing season as the plants
were still filling in their
kernels.
Since October of last
year, the National Weather
Service has recorded 16.82
inches of precipitation in
the Pendleton area, which
is about 5 inches more
than usual.
“Yields have been pretty
good,” Middleton said. “It’s
been a better crop than it
was last year.”
Conditions also helped
to delay the start of
harvest until about July 10,
Middleton said, which is
generally a good thing.
“Typically, the later the
start, the better yields you’ll
have,” he explained.
Protein levels are mostly
lower than they were last
year, Middleton added.
That’s good news for
growers who sell overseas
to countries like Japan,
where customers prefer
low-protein wheat to make
products like cakes and
noodles.
Randy Bracher said
farmers are always at the
mercy of Mother Nature,
but this year things have
turned out well across the
Pacific Northwest.
“This year, we’ve been
blessed,” he said. “Agri-
culture in general has been
pretty dang favorable for
growing conditions.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) —
Police in New York state
may soon have a high-tech
way of catching texting
drivers: a device known as
a textalyzer that allows an
officer to quickly check if
a cellphone has been in use
before a crash.
Democratic
Gov.
Andrew
Cuomo
on
Wednesday directed the
Governor’s Traffic Safety
Committee to examine the
technology and the ques-
tions about privacy and
civil liberties its use would
raise.
“Despite laws to ban
cellphone
use
while
driving, some motorists still
continue to insist on texting
behind the wheel — placing
themselves and others at
substantial risk,” Cuomo
said in a statement first
reported by The Associated
Press. “This review will
examine the effectiveness
of using this new emerging
technology to crack down
on this reckless behavior
and thoroughly evaluate
its implications to ensure
we protect the safety and
privacy of New Yorkers.”
The device is called
the textalyzer because
of its similarity to the
Breathalyzer, which is
used to identify drunken
drivers. Once plugged into
a person’s phone for about
a minute, it will indicate
whether a motorist was
texting, emailing, surfing
the web or otherwise using
his or her cellphone before
a serious crash.
Supporters
of
the
technology say the officer
would not be able to access
personal information on
the phone, such as pictures,
emails or web browsing
history.
The technology is still
some months away from
being ready, according to
Cellebrite, the Israel-based
tech company developing
the device.
Digital privacy and
civil
liberties
groups
already have questioned
whether the technology’s
use would violate personal
privacy, noting that police
can already obtain search
warrants if they believe
information on a private
phone could be useful in a
prosecution.
Many security experts
are skeptical when it comes
to promises that the text-
alyzer would only access
information about phone
usage, and not personal
material, according to
Rainey Reitman, of the
Electronic Frontier Foun-
dation, a nonprofit organi-
zation that advocates for
civil liberties when it comes
to digital technology.
“I am extremely nervous
about handing a cellphone
to a law enforcement
officer and allowing them
in any way to forensically
analyze it,” she said. “This
is a technology that is
incredibly problematic and
at the same time is unnec-
essary. There are already
legal avenues for a police
officer.”
Westchester
County
resident Ben Lieberman
lost his 19-year-old son
Evan Lieberman to a fatal
car crash in 2011 and later
discovered the driver of the
car his son was in had been
texting while driving. He’s
now a leading advocate
for the textalyzer and has
worked with Cellebrite
on the project. He said
he understands concerns
about privacy but they’re
unfounded, noting the
device would only tell
police whether a driver had
been breaking the law.
“A Breathalyzer doesn’t
tell you where you were
drinking, or whether it was
vodka or Jack Daniels, just
that you were drinking,”
he said. “This is the right
balance between public
safety and privacy.”
Count
Emily
Boedigheimer
as
a
supporter of the idea. The
Albany area resident said
she’s fine with police using
a textalyzer, as long as there
are rules about what police
would be able to see.
“If you’re texting and
driving you’re breaking
the law and you’re risking
people’s lives,” she said
during a lunchtime walk
in downtown Albany on
Wednesday. “Why can’t
you wait, or pull over, to
make that one call or read
your texts?”
The committee will hear
from supporters and oppo-
nents of the technology, law
enforcement officials and
legal experts before issuing
a report, Cuomo’s office
said. Particular areas of
focus will include the effec-
tiveness of the technology,
constitutional and legal
issues and how the device
would be used in practice.
MAIL: Street size also plays a
factor in cluster box placement
Continued from 1A
Dog bites, however,
aren’t the only reason the
post office might install a
cluster box in a neighbor-
hood.
Schwartz said the post
office received a few dozen
reports of package thefts
last Christmas season and
the problem was especially
prevalent in the North
Main Street area. The post
office installed a cluster
box near the top of North
Main so packages were
automatically put under
lock-and-key when they
were delivered.
Street size also plays
a factor in cluster box
placement.
Schwartz said the post
office plans to install a new
cluster box in the Riverside
area to serve the residents of
Anvidon Street, which is too
narrow for USPS vehicles.
Although she anticipates
the postal service will even-
tually deliver all of its mail
to cluster boxes, the scope
and cost of transitioning to
that system requires action
on a larger scale.
“It would take an act of
Congress,” she said.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.