Making the Road by Walking It – Ten Years on the Road with PSJ
Article by Caylor Roling
Since the theme of this issue [Spring 2010 Justice Matters] is looking back, moving forward, we thought we’d take a couple of pages to take a look at the road we’ve traveled as an organization. For some of you this might be new information and will hopefully give you new insight into who we are. For others, this will be pretty familiar because you’ve been moving forward with us since the beginning.
I come into the PSJ story fairly close to the beginning, sometime in about 2001, as a volunteer answering mail from people in prison. Of course, we were called Western Prison Project then. The organization was three years old and had recently emerged from Brigette Sarabi’s basement to occupy a tiny, almost windowless office near downtown Portland.
One thing to know about those early years of Western Prison Project was that the organization wasn’t focused on changing laws in Oregon. We worked on building a movement for criminal justice reform in seven western states by supporting the development of grassroots organizations. We did start several projects during this time that continue to this day, including our newsletter Justice Matters and our Prisoner Support Directory.
Living and working in Oregon, we were being affected by policy decisions made here – decisions like Measure 11 and the resulting siting of four new prisons in our state. So we became drawn more and more into legislative advocacy focused on our state. While at the legislature, we met an extraordinary person named Arwen Bird who founded an organization called SAFES (Survivors Advocating for an Effective System). SAFES was organized to be a voice for survivors and victims of crime and violence who wanted a system based on supporting survivors and preventing the harm that happened to them from happening to other people.
Healthy organizations grow and change, and in 2004, Western Prison Project and SAFES came together as organizations. At the same time, we were also doing more and more Oregon-based organizing and less regional work. It was time to think about critical organizational questions like whether we should be Oregon-specific, how we could effectively and authentically work with all of the people most impacted by crime and the criminal justice system, and what kind of name and programs best reflected our long-term goals and values. Bringing together an organization that had been building a membership of prisoners and their families and one with a membership of crime survivors had never been done before. There were no models. We were making the road by walking it. In 2006, we engaged in an important strategic planning process that allowed us to think, discuss, argue and plan for the future. We made some bold decisions that changed the way we looked and operated, but, in retrospect, those decisions were critical for the continued growth and success of our work.
In 2006, we officially changed our name to Partnership for Safety and Justice (PSJ) with members who were survivors of crime and violence, people convicted of crime, and the families of both, and decided to focus specifically on making change in Oregon. To reflect the scope of our work and all of our members, we created our four programs: the Prison Program, Beyond Barriers, Safety and Sentencing, and the Crime Survivors Program. We believe that we can make Oregon’s communities safer without building more prisons or sacrificing accountability.
Making this new road hasn’t been easy. One of our first challenges after becoming PSJ was the 2006 special legislative session which introduced a version of Jessica’s Law. Similar laws which created long mandatory sentences for people convicted of sex crimes against children had sailed through other state legislatures, and the tough-on-crime and “stranger danger” rhetoric around the law drowned out the voices of survivors and people who worked with child victims of abuse. No one was talking about how most children are victimized by someone in their family or someone they know. Long mandatory sentences actually prevent children from speaking up and getting help if they fear blame for sending someone in the family to prison for a very long time. The law also provided no resources to help children who were victims of sexual abuse.
With the leadership of Terrie Quinteros, the Crime Survivors Program began organizing against this law, which was actually all about building political careers and really had nothing to do with protecting children. Terrie gathered letters and testimony from key victim advocates working in Oregon on the issue of sexual violence. We knew the law would pass, but it was a critical moment where legislators began to recognize that the tough-on-crime, so-called “victim advocates” didn’t speak for the people most closely connected to these issues. This was a ground breaking effort to underscore that we need thoughtful solutions to complicated problems like sexual violence, not knee-jerk political responses that can do more harm than good.
In 2008, Kevin Mannix, author of Measure 11, was at it again with Measure 61 – more mandatory minimums – this time focused on addiction-driven crimes which, if passed, would have forced Oregon to spend billions of dollars building new prisons, destroying the social safety net in the process. We faced a well-funded campaign to pass a very dangerous measure and the odds were against us. Despite the presence of other bad ballot measures distracting key ally groups, we were able to build a strong statewide coalition. Our members took the lead and held house parties all over the state to raise money and educate their neighbors to oppose Measure 61. Members made thousands of phone calls, and we worked together with allies to educate thousands more people. And we won! Measure 61 was defeated!
As we moved into the 2009 legislative session, our victory over Measure 61 helped create the political climate to move the “smart on crime” message forward. We organized for and won several reforms that became the 2009 Safety and Savings Act, which included a delay in the implementation of most of the sentencing enhancements in Measure 57 (whose initial passage was a necessary part of defeating Measure 61 and also included a commitment to treatment over incarceration), a 10% increase in earned time, and 50% earned time for people on felony-probation. This was a major victory requiring a vote of two-thirds of all legislators to pass, and a sign that legislators are beginning to realize that we need to be smarter about our approach to public safety, particularly in tough economic times.
Over these ten years we’ve also educated thousands of people with conviction histories about their right to vote – and registered them – increased the funding for services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, kept prison programs from being cut, and increased employment access for people with felony convictions. In the limited space I have, I can’t begin to go into all the struggle, victories, and lessons learned in ten years of organizing. There’s also no way I can recognize all of the members and staff who have inspired and challenged me and made this organization successful over a decade. This road we’re on is challenging to walk sometimes. Our opposition is daily digging potholes and trying to rip up the path we’ve laid. But by continuing to bring together more people affected by this system, by continuing to organize together, we will all move forward.
Send Us Your Recollections
Looking back over a decade, there are many of you reading this who have been with us from the beginning and many of you have joined us at important points along the way. We want to hear your memories and experiences with Western Prison Project or Partnership for Safety and Justice. Email erika@safetyandjustice.org or write to us with a story about something that stands out in your memory about your involvement with Partnership for Safety and Justice. If we can get some stories before the statewide gathering, we’ll share some there. We’re also collecting them to share on our web site.
