A12
News
wallowa.com
QUESTIONS
Continued from Page A10
How well does the
Batterers Intervention
Program work?
When an offender pleads a
felony down to a misdemeanor,
that offender may escape jail
time but often is mandated to
attend the batterer intervention
program. How much good does
that actually do?
$ccording to 6tubble¿ eld,
the 52-week program can do
a lot of good. The program
challenges the beliefs and
values that have supported the
mindset that allowed them to be
abusive. To have those beliefs
challenged is tough, Stubble-
¿ eld said.
“About three months into
the course they don’t like the
course, they don’t like the
teachers, they don’t like the
curriculum. But by 52 weeks
they get it.”
In fact, she says, men who
are well into the program will
begin challenging the beliefs of
men new to the program.
“A lot of times these men in
the class will take the message
from someone who has been
in their shoes better than for
someone who is a program
facilitator,” Stubble¿ eld said.
But the best test of the
program is the comments of
victims who have maintained
a relationship with their former
abuser.
“They are able to state how
drastically different (the former
offender) is since completing
the program,” Stubble¿ eld
said. “That’s the true testament.
It goes to show it’s not just a
combination of two people
(bad chemistry); there is more
to it — that the abuse was a
choice for the abuser and given
the tools, they can choose a
different way.”
Why did Rep. Greg
Barreto (R-Cove) vote
against the law?
Although acknowledging
that a crime could be commit-
ted with a gun, he cited Section
2 of the law, which prohibits
guns and ammunition from
being owned “if the person is
subject to a court order that
was issued or continued after
a hearing for which the person
had actual notice and during the
course of which the person had
an opportunity to be heard.”
“This means he has not been
convicted,” Barreto said. “I
think in some of these instanc-
es ... they go too far and start
taking away a person’s rights
before they are convicted of a
crime.”
k Andrea Butterfield has earned a
e
e
W
e
th cumulative GPA of 3.84. She has
f
o
t
n
e
done this through a combination
Stud
of EHS classes and online
courses. She has taken two AP
English courses as well as higher
level science classes including
Physics and Advanced Biology.
She has also excelled in the
Family and Consumer Sciences.
Andrea Butterfield Congratulations Andrea on your
Academic success at EHS.
Enterprise High School
The Student of the Week is chosen for
academic achievement and community
involvement. Students are selected
by the administrators of
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January 20, 2016
Wallowa County Chieftain
DOC moves forward on
Deer Ridge expansion
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Depart-
ment of Corrections plans to
move nearly 800 inmates in
late February to a vacant me-
dium-security facility at Deer
Ridge Correctional Institution
in Madras.
The move, which will cost
2.5 million, is the ¿ rst in a
two-step plan to accommo-
date unanticipated growth in
the state’s prison population.
The inmates will be moved
from a smaller minimum-se-
curity complex at Deer Ridge
that lacks room for more beds.
“That plan is in motion,”
said DOC Director Colette
Peters.
The entire plan involves
opening 200 more beds. If
fully implemented, the expan-
sion is estimated to cost a total
of $9.5 million.
“It gives you an idea of
how expensive correction-
al facilities are,” said Sen.
Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin,
Courtesy Department of Corrections
The Department of Corrections is moving forward with a plan to move 800 inmates to the
Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras.
co-chairman of the Joint Com-
mittee on Ways and Means.
DOC’s biennial budget
failed to account for the cost
because the state projection
for the inmate population
ballooned between April and
October.
That means lawmakers
might need to approve up to
$9.5 million in new expendi-
tures at DOC during the legis-
lative session that begins Feb.
1.
Some lawmakers have
suggested they might have
to raid a $40 million Justice
Reinvestment fund dedicated
to paying for a suite of coun-
ty-level support services de-
signed to keep offenders out
of prison. County of¿ cials
have said such a withdrawal
of funds could deal a deadly
blow to the two-year-old Jus-
tice Reinvestment program.
The male inmate popula-
tion was 13,386 as of Wednes-
day. The trigger for opening
the 200 additional beds is
13,490, Peters said.
Inmate populations can
vary from day-to-day, the
DOC director said.
“When I look at these neg-
ative numbers I want to get
excited and say, this is the
trend, and we are moving for-
ward, but unfortunately, the
variance is ever so slight,” Pe-
ters said.
The Oregon Criminal Jus-
tice Commission has been
spearheading an effort to urge
and assist counties in curtail-
ing the number of offenders
that judges send to DOC. Each
county in November received
a target monthly number for
reductions, which in concert
would allow DOC to avoid
opening the 200 additional
beds at Deer Ridge.
“By all accounts, (coun-
ties) are doing a good job with
the intake population,” said
House Majority Leader Jen-
nifer Williamson, D-Portland,
a member of the Oregon Task
Force on Public Safety.
“What we are seeing
is people aren’t leaving as
quickly as we assumed that
they would.”
“I just want to make sure
that we reÀ ect on the record
that counties are working hard
to manage their input into the
system,” Williamson told the
ways and means committee
Friday. “This shouldn’t be
a reÀ ection on them or their
programming under Justice
Reinvestment.”
Programming differs from
county-to-county but can in-
clude probation of¿ cers, coun-
seling, mentoring, housing,
substance abuse treatment,
better criminal case manage-
ment and other services.
Williamson has committed
to defending the Justice Rein-
vestment fund from a raid, but
she faces a host of competing
interests during the 35-day
session in February and early
March, according to lawmak-
ers.
Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ash-
land, is pessimistic that DOC
can avoid the expansion at
Deer Ridge in the spring.
Bates said he has visited all
but two prisons in the state.
“These
prisons
are
jammed,” Bates said. “These
people are squeezed in every
corner. Sooner or later, we are
going to have to make some
changes. Deer Ridge is the
most logical place to expand
now.”
“I think when you come
back in February, you are go-
ing to have to tell us you are
going to have to open up more
beds,” Bates told Peters.
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