Safety and Justice staff can help you prepare to be as effective as possible even with a short five minute phone call. We are also trying to track all of the people we help mobilize.  Please contact us and let us know if you plan on testifying: 503-335-8449.

Key Logistical information:

These hearings are about the entire state budget, so they will be crowded. There will be a lot of people there to testify about a wide range of issues.

You will need to arrive very early (45 minutes to an hour) to ensure you get on the testimony list. When you arrive immediately ask someone where the testimony sign up list is and get on it as quickly as possible.

Expect to wait. Because these hearings are likely to be very crowded, even if you arrive early it, it could take a couple of hours to get to your turn. But your testimony is worth it!

Also expect to have only 2 to 3 minutes to talk. Your testimony will make a difference.

 Important Context:

• The Ways and Means Committee is very interested in any proposals that save significant money.

• We know that Oregon spends a greater percentage of its general fund budget on our prison system than any other state in the Country, according to Pew’s well known report 1 in 100 Behind Bars in America. Legislators need to hear that there is public support for spending less money on incarceration.

• Given the amount of time each of us will have to testify, it makes little sense to get into specific policy proposals other then mentioning them by name. It will be more important to relate support for our overarching concepts.

Key Messages and Concepts:

• How is it that in these dire economic times, Oregon is still planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on building a new prison in Junction City?

• We need to get smarter with our public safety spending. The Dept. of Corrections budget looks like it is growing while Oregon could drastically cut money for community based addiction treatment and mental health services. Yet, community based treatment reduces future crime at a fraction of the cost of prison.

• Now is the time to look at safe and sensible sentencing reform. Other states have been finding ways to reduce its prison spending in ways that don’t jeopardize public safety. Washington State increased earned time and found that it actually reduced recidivism while also saving millions of dollars.

• Oregon is one of only five states that spends more on our prison system than on higher education. This does not suggest a positive future for Oregon. Now is the time to make different budget choices.

• Community Corrections and Supervision has proven to be effective at a fraction of the cost of state prison beds, and yet we continue to short change local county public safety systems and pour tax dollars into expensive prison construction. This is not a good use of our public safety dollars.

Testimony Tips:

• Plan on only having 2 to 3 minutes. They are going to try and give a lot of people time to speak, so you will have to be concise. It is usually better to plan for 2 minutes.

• Begin with your name and where you live. If you know who your legislators are, perhaps briefly mention that you are in their district.

• Acknowledge that you know legislators have very difficult decisions to make because of the economy and that there will need to be budget cuts. (Legislators appreciate it when people understand how challenging of a position they are in. There is no way they can escape making some difficult cuts with a multi-billion dollar deficit.)

• After your brief intro, jump directly into focusing on the key message you want to emphasize.

• If possible, find an incredibly short way to personalize your message. Like: “as a teacher, I am concerned that our school funding could be in jeopardy because of out of control corrections spending.” Or “As someone successfully in recovery from addiction, I have benefited firsthand from treatment programs and am deeply concerned about potential cuts…”

• Don’t worry if people before you have said what you were planning on saying. Repetition of messages is very important and useful. The more both legislators and the public hear the same message the more likely they are to internalize it.

If you want to know more about the Ways and Means Committee, click on the link.

The testimony tips can also be downloaded as a pdf - Testimony Tips.

For additional information on messages and key reform concepts, see our Justice Reinvestment Issue Brief.