We've joined with @OregonPSR to call for an independent investigation by legislators into the recent wildfire evacuations from #Oregon prisons. Our newsletter has more details, or read this thread to learn what incarcerated Oregonians experienced. mailchi.mp/ojrc/vvvg4fytj…#orpol
All of these examples came from incarcerated people and their loved ones, and we heard similar accounts from many people. 1) Women evacuees not getting regular or adequate food and drink, e.g. one woman reported receiving only a peanut butter sandwich in a 29-hour period.
2) At the Oregon State Penitentiary, limited access to toilets, mixed with prison politics making access harder for some. Individuals were passing out because they did not want to drink water because they could not access the bathrooms.
3) Lack of bathroom breaks and rest stops. Some women forced to urinate on themselves. Some who had their periods bled through their clothes. Some told they could urinate outside in full view of the correctional officers and anyone who passed by. Reports women vomited on the bus.
4) Not everyone who needed it received their prescribed/regular medications. Some did receive but not reliably or not as expected. Lack of access to clean clothing, showers, and toiletries.
5) At Oregon State Penitentiary, extremely cramped living conditions that were unhygienic and in circumstances that made it difficult to sleep (the lights were kept on 24 hours day).
This is just a small selection of what we heard. Prisoner rights are human rights. How Oregon treats people in its care and custody defines us as a state. Let's learn from what went wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again when the next crisis hits.
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🚨Did you know that Oregon has NO minimum age of prosecution for kids? Tomorrow, we have a chance to change that when the House Judiciary Committee holds a public hearing on HB 2327, a bill we’re supporting to introduce a minimum prosecution age of 12.
From 2017-2021, more than a thousand Oregon children aged 7-11 had some form of contact with the juvenile justice system or were in a situation where they could be arrested, charged, and prosecuted in juvenile court.
Subjecting children to the court process and putting them in juvenile detention is harming them. They will face more barriers to education and employment and their physical and mental health will worsen. BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and low-income children are disproportionately affected.
New York City is not alone. There is a gap between the media coverage of shootings and the number of incidents in Portland.
This then, leads the public and lawmakers to call for increase police budgets and number of officers on the streets. Let's call it what it is: Copaganda.
The increase in gun violence that we have seen over the last two years has little to do with police budgets and staffing, but rather, has a direct correlation to the Covid-19 pandemic and economic burden it has placed on communities.
We know that investing in upstream services and investing in infrastructure such as street lighting and traffic calming barrels has reduced violent crime, while the number of officers has not shown any correlation with the number of crimes in Portland.
This report from Independent Police Review is called "Lessons Learned: City's response to protests exposed vulnerabilities in Portland's police accountability system," but we don't think the lesson has been learned. portland.gov/sites/default/…
"Hundreds of hours of video footage showed repeated incidents of officers resorting to physical control methods with both passive protestors and aggressive resistors."
The report does not include that Oregon legislators rolled back teargas and impact munition restrictions this past legislative session in 2022.
"Despite what you may hear in the local news, neither violent crime or property crime is spiking in the city."
On houselessness, and addressing serious concerns in safety: "What we are seeing is the result of 30+ years of public disinvestment in social services, increase in police budgets, and an economic model that has benefited the few, at the expense of many."
Overall crime rate in the last seven years stayed fairly steady, with a slight increase after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The average in the last seven years is still sitting at 84% of crimes being non-violent. (that's as far back as the website goes)
🧵 "Where are we now? From Black Lives Matter uprising to tough-on-crime backlash, and what's happening in Portland."
A timeline:
1960s: Civil Rights Movement
1960s-1970s: Tough-on-crime rhetoric & declaration of War on Drugs
1970s: Onset of mass incarceration and drastic increase in policing
2013-2020: Black Lives Matter Uprising
Now: Increased tough-on-crime rhetoric & policies
Shortly after the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, widespread tough-on-crime narratives rolled in the creation of the New Jim Crow- mass incarceration.