Gordon Friedman

Statesman Journal

A recently published report indicates that Oregon ranks seventh in its rate of black incarceration, far outpacing the national average despite state laws meant to curtail racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

The state imprisons 2061 black people per 100,000 black residents according to the report, while the national average is 1408 black people per 100,000 black residents.

Less than 2 percent of Oregonians are black, but more than 9 percent of the state's prison population is black, data shows. The report does not include rates of incarceration for jails and federal prisons.

Oklahoma leads the nation in black incarceration with 2625 black people imprisoned per 100,000 black residents. Among Oregon's neighboring states, Idaho ranks fifth with California 12th, Nevada 22nd and Washington 32nd.

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"To hear that Oregon ranks number seven — that's very disturbing," said Benny Williams, president of the Salem-Keizer branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Williams said that although he hasn't seen the new report, he is not surprised by its findings. He added that he believes Salem is making progress when it comes to race relations, but that the criminal justice system needs to make inroads towards ending racial disparities.

Marion County District Attorney Walter Beglau said last week that he had seen the report but not yet dived into the data. Beglau said he was concerned about racial disparities in the justice system and acknowledged that district attorneys play a role.

Dr. Ashley Nellis, a research analyst and author of the report for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit The Sentencing Project, said the racial disparities in incarceration create profound effects. When people are in prison, their absence from the community affects their spouse and children,but also their employer. If one racial group is over-incarcerated, that can fundamentally change a community.

Williams, the local NAACP president, agreed. "We're seeing a lot more young people being arrested and being locked up," he said. That has a pronounced effect on communities of color, he said, who may not have equal access to effective legal representation.

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Why are black Oregonians imprisoned at disproportionate rates?

Dr. Kesley Antle of the Brennan Center for Justice said the problem results in part from nationwide mass incarceration policies in the 1980s and '90s. Though race-neutral on their face, those policies disproportionately affected black people who were charged with nonviolent drug offenses.

Nellis said such crimes are best dealt with through prison alternatives.

Antle said mandatory minimum sentence laws also take part of the blame. "Tying judges' hands in that way has not been associated with a decrease in crime," she said.

Data for the report was gathered from the U.S. Census and the U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics, which publishes an annual National Prisoner Statistics survey.

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