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A4 • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • JULY 18, 2018 The First Amendment O PINION Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridg- ing the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition their Government for a redress of greivences. Who benefi ts most from more prisons? Karnes Detention Center in Texas, which recently broke ground at that site in order to double its capacity. Another detention center was opened by Correction Corporation of America (CCA) in 2015 that holds n a May interview 819 mothers and 1,000 on NPR, Homeland children in a lock-down Security Secretary style facility. Kirstjen Nielsen compared Both GEO Group and the Trump administration’s From the Managing Editor’s Desk CCA have had facilities “Zero Tolerance” policy closed in the past (Arte- to the same policy expe- Ned Hickson sia Detention Center and rienced by incarcerated Hutto Detention center, Americans every day in respectively) due to alle- this country who are sepa- non-violent crimes, losing mind that more than half of all the children who en- gations of abuse and poor their jobs, homes and rated from their children. tered into family detention living conditions — only “If you break the law, you custody of their children to re-open somewhere else facilities in that time were before they've even had a will be prosecuted. It’s no with a government con- chance to plead their case. six years old or younger. diff erent than what we do tract. And that was before the Th e fact is, the current every day in every part of While I think we all agree “Zero Tolerance” posture “law and order” approach the United States when an taken by Attorney General that our borders should isn’t new either. It was adult commits a crime,” never be a revolving door, Nielsen said. “We’re follow- echoed by President Nixon Jeff Sessions, which has compounded the problem particularly in an era with ing that same policy at our in the late 1960s, as well by demanding enforcement the constant threats of as Presidents Reagan and borders.” global terrorism and illegal And she’s absolutely cor- Clinton and their attempts without the necessary re- rect. In fact, we have a long to combat the drug war by sources to do so humanely. drugs, one must ask who But this is not a problem stands to benefi t most from history of state-sanctioned creating massive prison expansions to keep up with that is unique to the Trump an ever-expanding system family separation that of prisons and detention administration, although the demands of higher continues as a widespread centers. its poor handling of it has incarceration rates. practice today — particu- And whether tax dollars In addition to prisons, in made it uniquely terrible. larly in our justice system, given to corporate prisons When the Obama 2014 the U.S. government where approximately 2.7 and detention centers is administration began massively expanded its million children have a money well spent, or mon- detention centers for immi- detaining families in large parent behind bars. ey spent to pretend that all facilities back in 2014, grant families. And the fastest growing is well. for-profi t correctional According to reports group of prisoners? corporation GEO Group from the Lutheran Im- Women. answered the call with the migration and Refugee According to a report I by the Prison Fellowship, there has been a 14-fold in- crease of women in prison since 1970, and 80 percent of them are single mothers. Whether guilty or in- nocent, men and women oft en spend weeks, months and sometimes years in prison awaiting trial for Service (LIRS) and Wom- en’s Refugee Commission (WRC), between October 2013 and September 2014, the U.S. government ap- prehanded 68,334 children accompanied by a parent at the southwest border — a 361 percent increase since the previous year. Keep in Letters to the Editor Policy Th e Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published. Letters containing poetry or from outside Th e Sentinel readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. Political/Election Letters: Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accurate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and perspective rather than partisanship and campaign-style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and platforms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid political advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above criteria. Send letters to: nhickson@cgsentinel.com or cmay@cgsentinel.com HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS Oregon state representatives Oregon federal representatives • Sen. Floyd Prozanski District 4 State Senator PO Box 11511 Eugene, Ore. 97440 Phone: 541-342-2447 Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@ state.or.us • Rep. Cedric Hayden Republican District 7 State Representative 900 Court St. NE Salem, Ore. 97301 Phone: 503-986-1407 Website: www.leg.state.or. us/hayden Email: rep.cedrichayden@ state.or.us • Rep. Peter DeFazio (House of Representatives) 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: defazio.house.gov/ contact/email-peter Phone: 541-465-6732 • Sen. Ron Wyden 405 East 8th Ave., Suite 2020 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: wyden.senate.gov Phone: (541) 431-0229 • Sen. Jeff Merkley Email: merkley.senate.gov Phone: 541-465-6750 C ottage G rove S entinel (541) 942-3325 Administration Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher Gary Manly, General Manager ........................................................Ext. 207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com LETTERS A word on the Refi nement Plan Last night (July 16) the City Council voted to ap- ply for a BUILD grant to implement the Main Street Refi nement Plan, with only Councilman Kenneth Rob- erts voting against it. Th ough Mayor Jeff Gow- ing voted in favor of apply- ing for the BUILD grant, he stated his ongoing op- position to the Main Street Refi nement Plan as it is cur- rently written (he was the sole City Council member to vote against it in 2016). He said he would contin- ue to oppose making major changes to downtown Cot- tage Grove. According to City Coun- cilman, Jake Boone, the only portion of the plan to be fo- cused on at this time is page three — Project Objectives and Considerations. Jakelen Eckstine, Marketing Specialist ...........................................Ext. 213 jeckstine@cgsentinel.com However, the entire plan will be fi led with the grant applica- tion. Many of the members stated that the plan could still be “tweaked” if the city receives the BUILD grant and set- ting up an advi- sory committee was discussed along with more public comment peri- ods though no details were provided at this time. Just so everyone is up-to- date on what the Main Street Refi nement Plan includes, here is a link to it: www. cottagegrove.org/sites/de- fault/files/fileattachments/ community_develop- ment/page/4031/ cottage_ Park Nelson, Marketing Specialist .................................................Ext. 203 pnelson@cgsentinel.com Editorial Ned Hickson, Managing Editor........................................541-902-3520 ..... nhickson@cgsentinel.com Caitlyn May, Editor. ..........................................................................Ext. 212 cmay@cgsentinel.com Zach Silva, Sport Editor ....................................................................Ext. 204 zsilva@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Mandi Jacobs, Offi ce Manager .........................................................Ext. 200 Legals, Classifi eds ...................................................Ext. 200 mjacobs@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor ..................................................Ext.215 graphics@cgsentinel.com (USP 133880) Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: grove_main_street_adopt- ed_2015_fi nal.pdf —Friends of Main Street Cottage Grove Thanks after accident A big heartfelt thank you to the residents at the inter- section of Main Street and R St. for your concern and support on the night of Fri- day the 13 in the aft ermath of our accident. Kudos to Cottage Grove caring. — Ray Kinkade and Roseann Ruga Cottage Grove 10 Weeks .........................................................................................$11 One year ..........................................................................................$41 e-Edition year .................................................................................$35 Rates in all other areas of United States: 10 weeks, $15; 1 year, $53; e-Edition $35. In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than 10 weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. 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