Articles

I believe that one of the reasons that Oregon is so sleepy on race and criminal justice reform is that we have a false belief that we’re one of the “good states” and therefore don’t need to worry about it. I created this graphic to show where we actually stand compared to the rest of the … Continue reading Oregon’s Self-Delusion of Progressiveness on Criminal Justice

ln Washington state, a fledgling movement is looking at bringing back parole to reduce the number of people behind bars… The state Sentencing Guidelines Commission is to hear two proposals at its Nov. 20 meeting. Read the article in the Seattle Times Washington and Oregon both have severely restricted parole–in Oregon, all Measure 11 convictions are … Continue reading Washington State Considers Reinstating Parole

The 2013 Justice Reinvestment Act was aimed to flatline prison growth in Oregon. However, in order for it to pass, all changes to Measure 11 and Measure 57’s mandatory minimums were removed. The result is that our prison population isn’t actually declining, and we may have to build a new prison after all. To invest in … Continue reading Is Oregon on the cusp of building a new prison?

New article from The Guardian highlights several officers at OSP – ‘Prison guards can never be weak’: the hidden PTSD crisis in America’s jails. “…34% of corrections officers suffer from PTSD. This compares to 14% of military veterans. The suicide rate among corrections officers is twice as high as that of both police officers and … Continue reading PTSD and Suicide Amongst Prison Guards at Oregon State Penitentiary

This tool care of The Marshall Project lets you look up all the local government agencies that received military equipment from the Defense Department over the last 20 years. Here is the list for Oregon.