The East Oregonian ran the following editorial Nov. 6 on reducing the state's prison population:
The state of Oregon has plenty of uses for $9.5 million. But expanding the Deer Ridge prison in Madras should not be one of them.
The Department of Corrections plan, revealed recently by the EO Media Group, runs counter to the strides being made locally and nationally to reduce the prison population.
Such strides have reduced taxpayer costs, while not restricting freedom to a segment of the population that could safely be part of society.
State lawmakers said that to find the money to expand and staff the Madras prison, they may have to take $9.5 million from funding that was designed to keep offenders from going there in the first place.
That's a bad decision, and a short term fix that causes a long term problem.
Less spending on keeping people out of prison means we have to spend more once they get there. Before you know it, Madras will be filled and we will be building bricks and bars somewhere else.
This DOC decision was necessitated because of a 2013 law pushed by then-governor John Kitzhaber to reduce the number of people imprisoned in Oregon.
One solution that doesn't include a $9.5 million outlay and another growing prison: Let's be more successful at reducing those numbers.
Nationally, Barack Obama has worked to release prisoners locked up for certain drug crimes.
Although that is fewer than 1 percent of prisoners, it's a start.
Safety of law-abiding citizens is paramount. But this country and this state can do more to reduce taxpayers' costs, treat troubled citizens and still keep us as safe as possible.
Dale Primmer, Umatilla County community corrections director, is trying to do that.
He said he is concerned the funding cut will gut a county program before it has a chance to show results. Umatilla County applied for a $914,251 justice reinvestment grant, which it plans to use in part to establish a program that connects offenders with treatment centers before they are released from jail.
The shorter the time between jail and treatment the more likely it is that offenders will complete diversion programs and avoid recidivism, Primmer said.
The fear is that the counties will start new programs this year, then lose funding in 2016 because the state needs to expand Deer Ridge, Primmer said.
That kind of uncertainty makes it difficult for counties to plan, because they craft their budgets far in advance, he said.
"Let's not lock up the people we are mad at, let's lock up the people who are a danger to us going forward," Fordham law professor John Pfaff said.
He believes district attorneys have more power over the prison population than police chiefs or legislators.
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