The Governor's Commission on Public Safety met for the third time on November 21, 2011, in Portland.  They heard presentations from several speakers.  Three very experienced Oregon District Attorneys - John Foote, from Clackamas County; Bob Hermann, from Washington County; and Mike Schrunk, from Multnomah County - submitted written testimony.  Mr. Foote presented an oral summary of the written materials.  Reprinted below are their written comments on Oregon's correction policies and the remarkable success of Oregon's public safety system. 

Addressing Funding Issues Presented by the Oregon Prison System

Oregon’s Corrections Policy Success.The corrections system in this state can only be considered an unqualified success.  A combination of strategies such as sentencing policies targeted at violent crime, a robust evidence-based community corrections process mandated by law, inmate programming and allocated community resources have helped Oregon lead the nation in the reduction of violent criminal conduct and has also produced a significant reduction in property crime. When a program has been as successful as ours has been, changes should not be contemplated unless it is uncontrovertibly clear that these changes will produce better results. 

Oregon has achieved this success without extreme measures.  While it is indisputable that Oregon has experienced a drastic reduction in all types of crime over the last 15 years, this has been achieved without applying extreme penal measures.  Even with sentencing policies such as Measure 11, Measure 57 and repeat property crime sentencing law, Oregon’s incarceration rate remains well below the national average.  Even offenders sentenced for these offenses receive sentences in Oregon that are significantly more lenient than in the nation as a whole.  Furthermore, in the last 15 years our state has adopted a policy that targets mostly violent offenders for prison sentences and allows most other offenders to remain on supervision in the community.  Fully 70% of Oregon prison inmates are imprisoned on convictions for violent felonies and three fourths of all felony offenders are not sentenced to prison, but are put on probation.  In short, we have obtained remarkable results without utilizing draconian policies. 

Oregon should examine if we can operate our prison system more economically.  Changing sentencing structure to keep more of current prison inmates out of prison can reduce prison costs, but it is only one of several strategies available to economize, and one which may risk public safety.  Unfortunately, studies clearly demonstrate that cost savings achieved by releasing prison inmates will often be exceeded by the costs to crime victims if these inmates cannot be properly supervised in the community.  We believe that before that step is taken other avenues for budget savings should also be explored.  We are all painfully aware of the budget problems that exist today in this state and are committed to do whatever we can to help.  We believe that a close examination of prison costs is a prudent first step, however, because reducing prison costs without releasing inmates, if possible, would best protect public safety.  Attached is a copy of comparative prison cost figures throughout the United States, compiled by the American Corrections Association.  (Not attached.)  It demonstrates that daily prison inmate costs in Oregon are well above the national average.  It also demonstrates that Oregon led the nation in prison budget increases between 2009 and 2010, with a 16% increase in that one year, at a time when the prison inmate population only increased 1.2%.  Since then, daily prison costs per inmate have increased yet again from $84 to $93.  We believe that addressing prison administration costs could yield substantial budget savings without releasing prison inmates, and that this process should be conducted before the state considers altering our sentencing laws.  While some of the methods used by other prison systems to reduce costs would certainly not be appropriate for this state, we believe that Oregon should make a concerted effort to evaluate how other states manage to conduct their corrections operations more economically, and adopt those methods that are suitable for our state.

         (signed)            

         (signed)