GOVERNOR'S COMMISSION ON PUBLIC SAFETY JUST BEGINNING

The Governor's Commission on Public Safety is scheduled to issue its report on December 15, 2011, and the Governor's Executive Order expires on December 31, 2011.   After holding four all-day meetings around the state, (I attended all of them and made a presentation with the president of Crime Victims United at the last one) listening to planned presentations and public testimony, it is clear that the Commission is not in a position to do anything except stop meeting or continue reviewing the Oregon Public Safety System.  The Commission did not ..."collect, review, and evaluate arrest, conviction, sentencing and recidivism data as required by the Executive Order” nor did they "...collect, review, and evaluate data related to the costs of Oregon's current sentencing policy."  Although the Commission members spent considerable time listening to presentations, the task was simply too large for the five-month timeframe.  In addition, law enforcement members on the Commission such as a District Attorney and/or a Sheriff were noticeably lacking. Also missing was a practicing criminal defense attorney. I expect a new expanded Commission will replace the old one, and 2012 will be a busy year for them. 

The soon to expire Governor's Executive Order says,"           

            "Any concepts developed must put the safety of our citizens as the top priority and also ensure that individuals who commit crimes are held accountable for their conduct.  At the same time, we must focus on building a smart and efficient system that maximizes our public safety dollars in light of the current economic environment." 

I heartily agree with this statement because it puts the safety of our citizens as the top priority and ensures that criminals are held accountable.  I will be disappointed if this language is not carried forward into the new Commission charge in whatever form it takes. 

So... after attending all the Commission meetings and studying other materials, I come away from this process with the following thoughts: 

1. Building the prison in Junction City, Oregon, in the future is expensive.  The prison is only necessary if the Oregon prison population increases from 14,000 individuals to about 16,000 over the next 10 years, which is the prison population forecast. Forecasts are just that - forecasts.  In the past, these forecasts have been high.  What happens if the new prison is built and the space is not needed?

 

2. Oregon's public safety system has been a tremendous success since 1995.  Violent crime has dropped about 51%, and property crime has dropped 30 some percent.  Public safety meets or exceeds the benchmarks set for it in the Oregon Shines project.

 

3. Our elected leaders and the press do not publicly give the Oregon public safety system the credit it deserves.

 

4. Oregon is NOT "a lock them up and throw away the key" state.  About 23% of felons go to prison, and the remaining 77% are placed on probation.  With the exception of murder (25-year mandatory minimum sentence), there is no mandatory minimum sentence longer than 10 years for the 16 crimes in Ballot Measure 11, passed overwhelmingly by the voters in 1994.

 

5. There is evidence that Oregon's prison sentences are shorter than the average for other states.

 

6. Some people would like to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for violent offenders and felony sex offenders and to give judges discretion to sentence within limits.  This really means shorter sentences for violent offenders and felony sex offenders.

 

7. Most people don't realize that the big move away from judges having discretion to sentence felony offenders occurred in 1989 when the legislature passed sentencing guidelines.  Before guidelines, all felony offenders could be sentenced to prison, if the judge believed that was the right sentence.  When guidelines were passed in 1989, the vast majority of felons could no longer be sentenced to prison, even if the judge thought that was the right sentence. They had to be put on probation with conditions which could include some relatively short jail time.

 

8. If the new "Commission" really wants to do sentencing reform, they need to study each crime, one at a time, and determine if the requirements for each crime are appropriate, before they review sentence length.