Oregon prison population expected to grow fast


Thursday, April 02, 2009 | 5 comment(s)

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SALEM (AP) - A state report issued this week projects that Measure 57, the crime-sentencing measure approved by voters in November, will add 1,600 inmates to Oregon's prison population by 2013.

The measure, which took effect Jan. 1, requires sending repeat property and drug crime offenders to prison.

In the same election, voters rejected Measure 61, a tougher version sponsored by anti-crime activist Kevin Mannix that would have imposed mandatory prison sentences on first-time burglars, identity thieves and drug dealers.

Without the effects of Measure 57, the state's prison population would be expected to grow at an annual rate of 2 percent to 3 percent through mid-2010, with growth slowing to less than 1 percent in the outer years of the forecast, concludes a report by the state Office of Economic Analysis. With the effects of Measure 57, growth is expected to exceed 5 percent through mid-2011, while gradually returning to baseline growth in the later years of the forecast.

Oregon's prison system currently has about 13,765 inmates.

The 2008 Legislature placed Measure 57 on the ballot as a cheaper alternative to the Mannix idea, but it contained no funding mechanism to pay for additional prison beds.

Before the November election, a state committee projected that the passage of Measure 57 would cost $152 million during the 2009-11 budget period. Lawmakers now face a severe recession that could force cutbacks in state programs and services. To help control costs, prison officials initially plan to house Measure 57 offenders in temporary beds placed at existing corrections institutions across the state.
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To lock em up wrote on Apr 3, 2009 6:25 AM:

Wrong Joe Arpaio thinks hes a god and is being investigated for all kinds of acts against humanity.We dont need that sort in our state.

To Lock em up wrote on Apr 2, 2009 10:42 PM:

I like your way of thinking!

Cal wrote on Apr 2, 2009 5:51 PM:

LOCK-EM Up is Right! We need to follow the lead of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Criminals do not deserve our sympathy! It is time to get tough on these criminals!

Lock-em Up wrote on Apr 2, 2009 12:42 PM:

We should follow the lead of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. Army surplus tents, army surplus cots inside a razor wire enclosure. No coffee, two channels on TV, (Disney and The Weather Channel), Bologna sandwiches, pink underwear and chain gangs. Criminals have zero sympathy for their victims, why must we have sympathy for the criminals?

Just An Observer wrote on Apr 2, 2009 11:19 AM:

Easy solution to the unfunded measure. Just raise the taxes. The public voted for the measure so make the public PAY UP. If the taxpayers want to whine, next time the taxpayers had better think about the measures they vote to support because THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH.


I voted no on both measures last November.


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