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March 17, 2009
OR: Bill introduced to count prisoners as part of their home communities
Statesman Journal
2009 Legislature
Bill would change way inmates are counted
March 17, 2009
Marion County's population would shrink for purposes of redrawing state legislative and federal congressional districts under a bill that the House Rules Committee took up Monday.
House Bill 2930 would require inmates to be counted as part of the
communities they came from before they ended up in state prison.
Under current practice, they are considered residents of the counties where they are imprisoned.
The Salem area has four of Oregon's 14 prisons and work camps, housing just less than 4,000 of the 13,750 inmates systemwide.
A 20-year-old law requires inmates to return to their home counties once they are released from prison.
Rep. Chip Shields, D-Portland, the bill's chief sponsor, said his proposalis consistent with that law.
The committee took no immediate action.
Department of Corrections officials raised questions about its wording,which would require the agency to spend money; Shields said amendments might resolve those issues.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090317/LEGISLATURE/903170328
Posted by lois at March 17, 2009 08:34 PM