Search results | Street Roots

Results

SR editorial: Defelonization, profiling bill a milestone for Oregon

The new law also expands access to drug treatment for people who need health care more than social retribution In what was a contentious and often disappointing 2017 state legislative session, one measure stands out as a monumental benchmark. HB 2355, sig ...

14 Jul 2017 - SR editorial board
How black leaders came to support a racist criminal justice system

Local and state officials 'built mass incarceration, and that’s who’s going to unbuild it,' says James Forman Jr., author of 'Locking Up Our Own' It is well documented how mass incarceration reinforces a racial caste system in Americ ...

7 Jul 2017 - Mike Wold
Eugene Re-entry Court challenges ‘backward’ federal policy

The innovative program serves as a support group to help drug offenders get back on track EUGENE — U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken hands James Brown his certificate of graduation and announces that she has signed the order to commute his supervision. In Jul ...

30 Jun 2017 - Jonathan Stull
Victims want prevention and treatment, not more incarceration

COMMENTARY | Oregon legislators are considering a bill that reflects these preferences Crime survivors have a seat at the public safety table, but to ensure that criminal justice policy solutions reflect victims’ needs, advocates should always seek more w ...

19 May 2017 - Talia Gad
With ICE 'going after the farmworkers,' county jails make money

Oregonians take pride in the state’s “sanctuary” posture, but immigrant detainees from ICE are being held in county jails on a daily basis – for money. A movement in Oregon and elsewhere is pushing to get them out. On a sunny Saturday in early May, Ramon ...

17 May 2017 - Joanne Zuhl
Exonerated after 20 years, Anna Vasquez seeks justice

Anna Vasquez is one of the San Antonio Four – LGBT Latinas imprisoned for more than a decade for a horrific crime that never occurred. Now, Vasquez is working to protect others from wrongful conviction. Anna Vasquez and three of her friends – Elizabeth Ra ...

10 May 2017 - Suzanne Zalokar
Victims, survivors can teach us justice, in all its diversity

COMMENTARY | For too long, the voices of victims and survivors have been overlooked by the criminal justice system A few years ago, I worked with kids from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. I was invited to a summer training to lead activities designed ...

27 Apr 2017 - Amy Davidson
SR editorial: Revamp Oregon’s destructive drug laws

House Bill 2355 would defelonize low-level possession charges, emphasize public health The travesty of the so-called war on drugs plays on a constant loop, destroying lives, families and communities, and starting over with each generation. It continues, s ...

6 Apr 2017 - SR editorial board
Oregonians favor softer penalties for drug users

Poll finds widespread support among voters for defelonizing simple drug possession As lawmakers in Salem consider a bill to make possession of illicit drugs a misdemeanor rather than a felony, a statewide poll of Oregon voters reveals widespread support a ...

9 Mar 2017 - Emily Green
Journalist Dahlia Lithwick: What’s next for the Supreme Court

The Slate senior editor says Justice Scalia’s philosophy of originalism is a farce – and so is judicial activism Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor for Slate, writes about the Supreme Court and the United States’ judicial system. But this isn’t the leaden c ...

2 Mar 2017 - Amanda Waldroupe