Safety and Sentencing

Nearly 120 PSJ members and concerned Oregonians came together on Saturday, April 5th for our first Statewide Annual Gathering which was a resounding success! The day was devoted to providing the information and tools necessary to defeat the mandatory minimum measure that will be on Oregon’s ballot in November.

The fight to stop Kevin Mannix’s proposed new mandatory minimum sentences just took a step forward but also got much more complicated.The February legislative session ended late Friday night and on the last day they referred a measure to the November ballot challenging Mannix’s property crime measure. The legislative measure, which has yet to be given an official number for the ballot, has a superseding clause which means it cancels out Mannix's Mandatory Minimum Measure if it gets more votes. This summary lays out the differences between Mannix's Mandatory Minimum Measure and the legislative measure.

The State of Sentencing 2007 is a new report from the Sentencing Project that highlights positive changes in criminal justice policy made by state governments across the country.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a report stating that treating juveniles as adults in the criminal justice system is bad for young people and bad for public safety.

A new initiative that would create mandatory sentences for drug and property crimes will translate into three new prisons and 4,000 to 6,000 more Oregonians in prison if it passes.