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A program that helps Multnomah County send fewer people to prison is at risk

A new report shows the program is working, but politics and money woes threaten to undercut its progress Since July 2014, Multnomah County has sent more than 600 offenders, who in the past would have likely gone to prison, into an intensive probation prog ...

15 Dec 2016 - Emily Green
Greater transparency sought from Oregon Department of Corrections

Advocates and inmates' families want changes to disciplinary and transfer policies and the way they're applied to people of color Local civil rights groups are asking Oregon Department of Corrections for increased transparency and an audit of di ...

20 Oct 2016 - Emily Green
Jail librarian gives inmates the key to understanding the world

Multnomah County’s Carol Cook encourages reading as a tool for exploring beyond their own lives and experiences If the stereotype of a jail librarian involves a stern woman trundling her cart down a narrow catwalk as hands reach through bars for tattered ...

25 Aug 2016 - Jane Salisbury
Opening 2nd women's prison in Oregon would reverse progress

COMMENTARY | Prosecutors, legislators have power to choose how to better spend $10M on women convicted of crime At the end of September, the Emergency Board of the Oregon State Legislature will consider a request from the Department of Corrections for nea ...

18 Aug 2016 - Shannon Wight
The multibillion-dollar immigrant detention industry

The criminalization of improper border crossings costs taxpayers billions but does little to stifle the flow of illegal immigrants In April, members of the immigrant advocacy group Enlace rallied on the doorsteps of U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s Portland office. ...

21 Jul 2016 - Emily Green
How the U.S. became a country where freedom fails to ring

BOOK REVIEW | James Kilgore explains our dubious grip on freedom in ‘Understanding Mass Incarceration’ The irony of our criminal justice system is that our “land of the free” locks up more of its people than any other country. As such, it’s an outlier in ...

28 Apr 2016 - Mike Wold
Entrepreneurs on the inside: Inmates learn 'the power of choice'

Sonja Skvarla, founder of A Social Ignition, uses the language of business to help people invest in themselves, even when no one else will Joshua Wright has a plan to help people, specifically young adults. His business plan is to create a mixed martial a ...

10 Dec 2015 - Joanne Zuhl
Rod Underhill and the D.A. agenda: Reduce incarceration

Multnomah County’s incarceration rate is less than half the national average, but disparities remain When Rod Underhill attached his name to new group aimed at putting fewer people behind bars, he made a symbolic statement more prudent district attorneys ...

19 Nov 2015 - Emily Green
Past pot convictions get little relief under new statute

Gov. Kate Brown signed House Bill 3400 Tuesday, adding a long list of new provisions and amendments to ballot Measure 91. However, missing from this extensive, 111-page document, or any other bill that’s been signed into law to date, is a provision to re ...

6 Jul 2015 - Emily Green
Stronger families make safer communities

Oregon looks to model Washington's Family Offender Sentencing Alternative to allow certain parents to serve sentences in community supervision rather than prison Oregon has recently committed to an exciting new path to improve its public safety syste ...

27 Mar 2015 - Shannon Wight and Elizabeth Hilliard