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July 04, 2009
OR: Tepid Reception for Racial Impacts Proposal. Sponsor finds unease when 'race' enters fray.
Tepid Reception for Racial Impacts Proposal
By Jake Thomas /The Portland Observer
Sponsor finds unease when 'race' enters fray
When Oregon voters jumped on the "get tough on crime" bandwagon in the 1990s by approving Measure 11, they might not have fully understood where it was headed.
Measure 11, which removes the sentencing leeway a judge can give a defendant and imposes mandatory minimum prison terms for certain crimes, has caused Oregon's prison population to swell.
The Department of Corrections estimated that inmates in Oregon prisons will grow by 41 percent because of the measure. This has been particularly hard for Oregon's minority population. African Americans make up nearly 10 percent of the state's prison population, even though they are about 2 percent of the population. Hispanics make up over 12 percent of inmates, while making up only about 10 percent of the general population.
Rep. Chip Shields, D-Portland, hoped to shine light on the issue this year by introducing House Bill 2352, which requires the state to issue a racial and ethnic impact statement any time voters or legislators consider a change to sentencing policy, like Measure 11.
Such a statement would be similar to an environmental or fiscal impact statement, which use existing data to predict how pending legislation will affect the natural world or the state's coffers.
Shields hopes that the bill will make lawmakers and the public aware of the potential for unintended consequences from a change in sentencing policy.
The bill has received a tepid reception so far, which is surprising for a state that prides itself for its tolerance and progressiveness, and recently gave the Democratic Party super majorities in both houses last election,
It passed the House Rules Committee without a recommendation as to passage, with an amendment from the Oregon District Attorneys Association, which would require an additional statement detailing how minorities might be disproportionately affected by a certain type of crime.
"I've got to do some more educating of the body on the bill," said Shields.
One of the issues he says he has encountered has been his fellow legislators' unease with the phrase "racial impact statement."
"You throw the word 'race' around and it freaks people out," he said.
With the legislature set to adjourn later this month it's dubious that Oregon will join four other states that require racial impact statements.
Iowa, a state even more lilywhite than Oregon, passed similar legislation last year, which was championed by the state's only black legislator, Rep. Wayne Ford (D-Des Moines.).
Ford said that Oregon is in a similar situation with Iowa having most of its minority populations in its urban centers. This arrangement might make rural legislators less sensitive to the issue.
But Ford overcame this by calling enough attention to the fact that people of color make up 37 percent of the prison population, although they are less than 8 percent of the general population.
"I think many politicians on both sides of the aisle got sick of this," he said.
http://www.portlandobserver.com/story.asp?record=10139§ion=Law%20/%20Politics
Posted by lois at July 4, 2009 04:04 PM