Victim Advocates Call on Public Safety Commission to Consider Diversity of Victims’ Needs
“There is no one voice that speaks on behalf of crime victims. I am concerned that there is a misconception in Oregon that victims care only about harsh punishment and long-term incarceration…Many, probably most, victims also care about wisely investing our limited public funds in programs that are known to rehabilitate offenders. They understand a good return on investment. They know that most offenders will eventually get out of prison, that prisons are expensive, not cost-effective for many offenders, and make many offenders more dangerous.”
– Bob Robison, Retired Victim Services Manager
On December 2, 2011, victim advocates called on the Public Safety Commission to consider the diversity of victims’ needs as part of the Commission’s charge to make Oregon’s public safety system more effective and cost-effective.
Bob Robison, retired Victim Services Manager at the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, and Niki Terzieff, representative of the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, told the Commission that many crime survivors and victim advocates support smart sentencing reform. They advocated that some of the savings be reinvested into a vital yet under-resourced part of the public safety system: victims’ services.
In 2010, while 7 out of every 10 public safety dollars went to Oregon’s department of corrections, there were almost 23,000 requests for emergency shelter from violence that went unmet because Oregon’s domestic violence programs are underfunded and stretched beyond capacity. This represents a public safety system that is out of balance and many victim advocates are calling for a change.
