by The Associated Press
As Oregon’s prison inmate population grows under tough new sentencing laws, less state money is available for programs that prevent people from embarking on a life of crime in the first place.
More and more money is being spent on prisons in the wake of the 1994 voter approval of a measure mandating stiff sentences for violent crime.
State spending on youth and adult prisons has climbed by 53 percent, to $609 million, since the 1991-93 budget period.
Spending for public schools rose 12 percent during the same period. Efforts to equalize school spending among all school districts has led to major budget cuts at many districts, including the state’s largest in Portland.
Higher education has seen its funding cut by 14 percent since 1991-92, the deepest cut in the nation. In the 1997-99 budget period, Oregon is expected for the first time in its history to spend more on prisons than higher education.
Corrections, human resources and education demand most of the state budget.
“When one expands, the others will get squeezed,” says Paul Warner, state economist.
The state public safety budget, which includes prisons, courts and state police, expects to need an additional $400 million in 1997-99, mostly to make room for a 30 percent increase in prisoners.
Schools will be in a position of having to scramble to keep up with inflation and enrollment growth.
The Corrections Department predicts it will cost $1.3 billion more to build 10 more prisons for an inmate population expected to grow from about 8,000 today to 19,000 by 2005. The juvenile justice system also is building five more detention centers.
State leaders are left with the dilemma for finding enough money to pay for both prisons and schools.
“You can’t build your way out of this problem,” says Benjamin de Hann, deputy director for the Oregon Department of Corrections and a former administrator for children’s services in the Department of Human Resources. “We’ve got to somehow have the discipline to invest in the front of the system to prevent the need for more prisons.”
One state program to prevent criminal behavior teaches parents how to deal with at-risk youth.
Zack Stoneburg, 15, says the program took him off a dangerous path.
He had trouble and little support at home. He skipped school, violated curfew and got expelled from seventh grade. He was involved in three fights that brought assault charges.
About 18 months ago, the Oregon Youth Authority placed Zack with trained foster parents, Jerri and Mark Ludlam of Eugene. The Oregon Social Learning Center, a nonprofit social research corporation in Eugene, taught the Ludlams how to discipline delinquent youth.
The couple defined clear boundaries for Zack. They gave him points for getting out of bed, combing his hair, doing chores and showing a mature attitude. They took him to church. They checked in with the social learning center daily.
Zack said he now aspires to finish high school and become a U.S. Air Force jet mechanic.
He said that without the program, “I’d probably be in jail.”
It would have cost Oregon about $12,800 a year to keep Zack in a group home, $31,800 to put him in a juvenile treatment facility and $43,800 to lock him up in a juvenile prison.
But it cost only about $10,200 a year to keep him with the Ludlams.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 1996, The Register-Guard, www.registerguard.com.