Oregon Delays Trials, Frees Nonviolent Inmates

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By Union-Tribune

Published: 05/19/2003

As one of the first states to establish drug courts and community courts for victim restitution, Oregon developed a reputation for innovation.
Now, Oregon is establishing a new reputation. This time it's for letting people out of jail.
Faced with a massive state budget deficit, court authorities in Portland have released suspected forgers, con artists, shoplifters and auto thieves and delayed their cases for at least four months.
Oregon officials have laid off state troopers, freed nonviolent inmates, and closed courts throughout the state one day a week since March.
'We're absolutely worried about public safety,' said Dale Koch, the presiding judge in Portland's Multnomah County. 'The kinds of crimes we are not able to process - stealing cars, stealing checks - these really erode the quality of life.'
Like 41 states, Oregon has been hit with a budget gap.
But Oregon's financial meltdown is among the most severe because the state depends on volatile income taxes for 75 percent of its revenue.
'They got into a worse situation and they got into it more quickly than other states,' said Arturo Perez, an analyst for the National Conference on State Legislatures. 'No other state relies on the income tax as much as Oregon.'
In Oregon, the budget ax has fallen on courts, jails and criminal lawyers.
U.S. Supreme Court decisions require poor defendants facing jail time to be given a court-appointed lawyer. Oregon had to slash the fund that pays these lawyers.
Now Oregon prosecutors charge and release those accused of felony and misdemeanor property crimes because they can't afford lawyers for poor defendants.
Presiding Judge Koch estimates that these new policies will cause delays in up to 700 property felonies, 500 drug-possession cases and 3,000 misdemeanors.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Shrunk said he is considering recommending sentencing some suspected thieves, if convicted, with fines rather than jail time. This would allow him to go ahead with their trials because public attorneys generally are required only when the potential sentence includes jail time.
Oregon's budget shortfall this year was bigger than California's, 18.5 percent of its projected general fund compared with 11 percent, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.

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