News
Why are so many members of a Portland police oversight board calling it quits?
UPDATE June 1, 2016: On the heels of Kathleen Saadat's resignation, COAB member and co-chair of the Mental Health Crisis Response Subcommittee, Alisha Moreland-Capuia, resigned today, stating that she is stepping down, "At this time and under these current conditions." Moreland-Capuia is a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Sciences University and director of the Avel Gordly Center…
David Prescott’s return from rock bottom
David Prescott stands on the corner of Southeast Sixth Avenue and Everett Street in downtown Portland feeling the sun on his face. In his hands he holds the 22-page lease he’s just signed with Central City Concern for a room at the Sally McCracken apartment building. Tomorrow, he’ll move his belongings from the Hotel Estate,…
A young inmate’s Freedom Day
Freedom Day came early for me. It always does. I arrive at Camp Tillamook just before 6 a.m., coffee thermos in hand, ready for my buddy’s first day of freedom. He could walk out the gate for the last time at 6 a.m. sharp. But, like all the others guys I’ve had this day with,…
Why a retired judge mentors youths in prison
Before retiring in 2013, Neal Lemery spent most of his judicial career presiding over courtrooms in Oregon’s northern coastal cities. Today, he dedicates his time to mentoring young inmates, a role he said more adults should assume. “Fatherlessness is a huge, huge epidemic,” he said. “Eight-five percent of youth in prison are fatherless; 90 percent…
On the outside: Families’ perspectives on incarceration
Family members of the United States’ 2.3 million inmates often undergo economic hardship and feelings of loss and frustration as they grapple with the incarceration of a loved one. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, at First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland, 10 of them will share their personal stories in a free public performance. …
Opinion
A supportive spirit in wake of UCC shooting
Yesterday, the unthinkable happened. Again. I’m writing Partnership for Safety and Justice’s guest column just after midnight Oct. 2, hours after a 26 year-old man killed nine people and injured nine more during a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College. In the time between writing this column and its publication, the news will have probably…
Portland City Council should say ‘Yes!’ to Comprehensive Plan
Portland’s City Council has a historic opportunity to act on its stated commitment to racial equity and to lay the foundation for a more just future for our city. The council recently began discussions about Portland’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan, which will determine how Portland grows and accommodates some 260,000 new residents over the next 20…
Book review: ‘Guantanamo Diary’ is a diary of the damned
It is one thing for the news media to tell us the U.S. government mistreats prisoners at the benignly named Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. It is entirely another to read a first-person description of the brutal and inhumane treatment endured by someone still imprisoned there. “Guantanamo Diary” confirms the reasons many Americans have been skeptical…
Good policy, not politics, expected from Portland’s declaration
Someone asked me this week: Is the homeless and housing crisis really something that should be declared a state of emergency, or was it just politics? I don’t know. You tell me. Is having thousands of people sleeping on our streets in unhealthy living conditions and having scores of people receiving no-cause evictions in Portland…
