A8 The BulleTin • Sunday, January 31, 2021
Goals
Continued from A1
A final list of goals will be
brought back to the commis-
sion later this winter.
Housing remains a top pri-
ority for the county, including
addressing a growing home-
less population. Commissioner
Patti Adair said Thursday she
is concerned for the safety of
the neighborhood around
China Hat Road — which is
home to homeless camps in
the Deschutes National Forest
southeast of Bend — and asked
about the possibility of allow-
ing people living in RVs to
park at the Deschutes County
Fair & Expo Center to get
people off the streets and give
them a legal place to go.
Commissioner Phil Chang
said looking at land use code
to incentivize the development
of RV parks and mobile home
parks could be the way to ad-
dress a lack of affordable hous-
ing in the county.
He also suggested the county
look into finding land that could
be turned into campgrounds,
which in the summer could be
used by tourists to lessen the
pressure on already stretched
recreation areas and then leased
out to people who need a space
for an RV in the off season.
“There are so many people
who are dispersed camping on
our public lands...I think we
need to be doing something to
help them,” Chang said.
There was also interest by
the commission in furthering
a proposal to redesignate land
zoned for farming as non prime
resource land, which has been
contested by groups like the De-
partment of Land Conservation
and Development and environ-
mental groups.
Starting 2019, the county has
worked on a proposal to rezone
land that is technically zoned
for farming but isn’t suitable for
it due to poor soil quality or the
fact that the land is already de-
veloped. One proposal to rezone
six rural subdivisions has not
faced much opposition, whereas
another proposal to create a set
of criteria to rezone this kind
of farmland elsewhere in the
county has been controversial.
Chang said he supports
coming up with a sort of agree-
ment that would allow them to
have the ability to rezone spe-
cific parts of the county in the
future to accommodate growth
without the fear of setting a
precedent.
“I think everyone can see
taking extreme positions and
trying to haggle is not working
for us,” Chang said.
Doing more to mitigate im-
pacts from wildfires was also
a shared goal among commis-
sioners.
Chang advocated for the
county to prioritize more fuel
reduction efforts in the county
possibly by investing more local
dollars to do so.
Commission Chair Tony
DeBone questioned whether
it would be better to redirect
county resources away from an
Eastern Oregon forest planning
effort after a forest planning for
the Blue Mountains National
Forests didn’t end with closure.
“If it’s a goose chase that never
ends, let’s acknowledge it as
such,” DeBone said.
Chang also said he wants to
look for opportunities to invest
in mental health services to sup-
port law enforcement agencies.
The idea would be to fund more
mental health positions to re-
spond to mental-health related
911 calls to reduce the demand
on law enforcement while im-
proving the outcome of the situ-
ation, Chang said.
DeBone said with multiple
agencies, such as the Deschutes
County Sheriff’s Office and the
District Attorney’s office, both
expressing interest in more
Inmates
Continued from A1
He sensed disorganization
among the prison staff.
“I’m just tired of being
moved around,” Monahan
wrote to his sister. “I’ve been
moved eight times since
COVID broke out. I’ve been
on and off my medications be-
cause staff lost it.”
The letter left Howard even
more unsettled.
“I’m worried for him,” How-
ard said. “It just doesn’t seem
like the prison knows what
they are doing.”
Some relief came this month
when inmates across the state
started receiving COVID-19
vaccinations. So far, 1,434
inmates have received the
vaccine out of about 13,000,
according to the Oregon De-
partment of Corrections.
But prisoner advocates say
vaccines are not being admin-
istered fast enough to stop the
spread of the virus. They say
the damage has already been
done.
Tara Herivel, head of the Or-
egon Habeas Strike Force, a
group of attorneys represent-
ing about 330 prisoners across
the state, including 17 at Deer
Ridge, said there is no consis-
tency for how vaccines are given
in the prisons.
“Prison to prison, we are get-
ting totally different reports,”
Herivel said. “But what I’ve
heard is that they had extremely
limited supplies for prisoners.”
Meanwhile, the virus contin-
ues to get worse in the prisons,
she said.
In addition to Herivel’s group,
a separate class action law-
suit was filed in federal court
in Eugene over the handling of
COVID-19 in the prisons. The
Oregon Justice Resource Cen-
ter, which handles civil rights
cases, filed the lawsuit earlier
this month to compel Gov. Kate
Brown and the Department of
Corrections to vaccinate every-
one in custody against the virus.
The resource center, which
alleges that a refusal by prison
staff to wear masks “has mas-
sively contributed to the unac-
ceptable spread” of COVID-19,
said Oregon prisons “have con-
sistently been among the most
dangerous workplaces during
the pandemic.”
“Everybody has been on
edge since March of last year,”
said Juan Chavez, an attorney
with the center. “They haven’t
seen their loved ones. They are
watching guards come in with-
out masks. They are watching
other people engage in risky
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
The Deer Ridge Correctional Institution is in Madras. Prisoner advo-
cates say vaccines are not being administered fast enough to stop the
spread of the virus. They say the damage has already been done.
COVID behavior and they are
scared.”
Chavez said the lawsuit aims
to have inmates vaccinated at
the same rate as senior citizens
and teachers, which should be
possible since the inmate popu-
lation is much smaller.
“It makes sense that if you are
at high risk of catching the dis-
ease then you need to be a prior-
ity for vaccination,” Chavez said.
Chavez understands if there
are not enough vaccines avail-
able at a given time, but he be-
lieves the prisons need more
urgency to address the spread of
the virus.
“We are saying that they
have ignored this,” Chavez said.
“They acknowledge it’s a prob-
lem, but they have ignored the
solutions.”
Both groups of prisoner ad-
vocates are hearing the same
concerns.
Inmates, like Howard’s
brother, are troubled by how
often they have been trans-
ferred to other prisons during
the pandemic. They’re also
unhappy with how little infor-
mation they are given about
plans to combat the virus and
many are concerned by how
few staff and other inmates
have complied with wearing
masks to protect against the
virus.
Herivel said she was appalled
when she heard prison officials
admit in court they have been
transferring inmates who are
infected with the virus.
“They are doing it and they
are spreading the virus that
way,” Herivel said.
Jennifer Black, a spokesper-
son for the Oregon Depart-
ment of Corrections, said the
department has heard the con-
cerns from families and advo-
cates about inmate transfers.
But it’s necessary to bring in-
fected inmates to prisons that
are better equipped for medical
care, she said.
“We are required to med-
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ically care for those in our
custody and sometimes that
requires they be moved to an-
other institution,” Black said.
“For example, not all of our
institutions have 24/7 medical
care.”
As an advocate for prisoners,
Herivel does not bother trying
to convince people prisoners
are deserving of care. Instead,
she says there is a logical rea-
son prisoners need to be pro-
tected from the virus.
If vaccine distribution is pri-
oritized by need, then prisons
have to be included with nurs-
ing homes, hospitals and food
process facilities because each
has experienced COVID-19
outbreaks, Herivel said.
“Those are the top areas
that are the highest levels of
contraction,” Herivel said. “So
that’s just an objective mea-
sure.”
Howard understands the
lack of compassion for prison-
ers. She certainly does not ex-
cuse her brother’s crimes and
knows he must serve his time.
But he does not deserve to die
in prison from a virus, she said.
Monahan, 49, was in and
out of jail for many years from
drug use. He was convicted of
rape in 2008 and sentenced to
15 years in prison.
“I believe in my heart he
would have never done that if
he hadn’t been high out of his
mental health related staffing,
coordinating these efforts are
important.
DeBone also mentioned the
goal of finding a way for resi-
dents in the rural county liv-
ing on private roads to come
together to maintain them by
either helping them form a
road district — which collects
taxes from a specific area for
the upkeep of roads — or find
an easier, less bureaucratic way
to come together to maintain
these roads.
Continuing to improve the
county’s response to COVID-19
was also discussed. Adair asked
about the county’s focus when
it comes to reaching out to the
county’s Latino population and
vaccinations.
“I worry about the Latinx
and I don’t want to ignore
them,” Adair said.
Chang also said the county
should focus on more preemp-
tive testing and more targeted
messaging to people about re-
sponsible behavior during a
pandemic.
Promoting rural agriculture
businesses, as well as finding
a site for a new landfill within
the county’s border, are goals
that were also discussed.
e e
Reporter: 541-633-2160,
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mind on methamphetamine
for so many days,” Howard
said.
Howard wants to see her
brother again when he is re-
leased in three years. She hopes
the advocacy groups will help
keep him safe in the meantime.
Still, Howard is discouraged.
Her brother sounded happy at
Deer Ridge when they talked
on the phone regularly over the
summer. He was making prog-
ress on his mental and physical
health after a life of drug addic-
tion led him to prison.
That all changed when the
virus began to spread.
“He seemed really upbeat,
and now it’s all gone,” Howard
said.
Howard is still unable
to regularly hear from her
brother. Lately, she’s missed
his calls from a Umatilla num-
ber she doesn’t recognize, but
could mean he was transferred
to Two Rivers Correctional In-
stitution.
“It’s sad,” Howard said. “I
just don’t understand the mov-
ing around of inmates during
all of this.”
And the lack of informa-
tion only fuels her dread. All
she knows about the Uma-
tilla prison is it has the most
COVID-19 deaths in Oregon.
In January alone, 13 inmates
died.
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Dropout
Continued from A1
This change resulted in
school districts re-connect-
ing with students more often,
Wiens said.
“That effort to re-engage
students during distance
learning contributed to the
decline in the dropout rate,”
he said.
David Burke, who as direc-
tor of secondary programs
for Redmond School District
oversees all middle and high
schools in Redmond, agreed.
“Those kids, even though
they would’ve been 10-day
dropped in the past, they
were still enrolled,” he said.
“So that could’ve impacted
that dropout rate.”
However, Burke also be-
lieves Redmond’s lower drop-
out rate is due to extra effort
from school staff, and even
the families of struggling stu-
dents.
“I think parents really
stepped up in the spring,”
Burke told The Bulletin.
“I would give them a lot of
credit for reaching out and
making sure we were con-
nected with their students.”
Burke, and his counterpart
in Bend-La Pine, Katie Leg-
ace, also said the dropout rate
dip could be a result of trick-
le-down effects from Mea-
sure 98, passed by Oregon
voters in 2016.
Measure 98 generated
extra funding specifically
geared to reduce dropouts.
Both Bend-La Pine and Red-
mond used that money to
hire graduation coaches and
start programs that identify
struggling students who need
intervention, Legace and
Burke said.
Bend-La Pine also used
funding to create more career
and technical education pro-
grams, hire staffers focused
on social-emotional health,
start programs designed to
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get struggling ninth-grad-
ers on track to graduate and
open three magnet high
schools: Bend Tech Academy,
Realms and Skyline.
Legace said all these as-
pects combined likely helped
in preventing dropouts.
“I don’t know that it’s any
one thing,” she said. “It’s a
systemic shift in how we
work with high school stu-
dents, and how we transition
them in.”
Legace said she wasn’t sure
if the 10-day dropout rule
had any impact on dropout
rates.
Representatives from
America’s Promise Alliance
— a D.C.-based nonprofit
focused on helping youth —
said Oregon’s falling dropout
rate in 2020 is likely indica-
tive of a strange time for ed-
ucation. Next year’s rate is
probably going to be an out-
lier as well, said Liz Glazer,
part of the nonprofit’s grad-
uation-focused wing, Grad-
Nation.
“We’d assume that for the
time of COVID, these rates
are going to be anomalies,”
she said.
Melissa Mellor, spokesper-
son for America’s Promise
Alliance, added that it doesn’t
make sense to compare 2020
and 2021’s dropout numbers
with previous years, unless
the context of COVID-19 is
taken into account.
“These graduation and
dropout rates for this year are
going to be very tricky to in-
terpret,” she said. “The unsat-
isfying answer is, we have to
wait and see how they shake
out.”
Regardless of why drop-
outs shrunk locally, educators
agreed that it was a bright
spot in a challenging year.
“Any time we have fewer
students dropping out, that’s
a positive thing,” said Burke.
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