Multnomah County’s jails have an overpopulation problem. The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners adopted a new plan last week that will change the protocol for releasing inmates to make room for new ones.
As the Mercury reported last year, one of the county’s two jails, the Iverness Jail in Northeast Portland, lost capacity after two dorms were shuttered due to budget cuts. That left the Multnomah County jail system with just 1,192 available slots, down 1,251 slots from earlier in 2017.
The low capacity triggered the Multnomah County Sherriff’s Office (MCSO) to put out an “emergency population notice” to law enforcement agencies in the county—and to release jail inmates for the first time since 2013. The inmates had been charged with crimes, but not convicted, and were awaiting their court dates.
Earlier this year, Willamette Week reported that the “matrix”—the computer system the MCSO uses to determine which inmates should be released in the event of an emergency population notice—was recommending that potentially dangerous inmates be released, including one charged with murder. Forty-five percent of inmates released, WW found, were charged with crimes that would lead to prison time if they were convicted.
Last Thursday, the county board of commissioners adopted a revised jail capacity management plan intended to address the faults in the matrix.
The new plan prevents MSCO from releasing any inmates charged with crimes listed under Oregon Ballot Measure 11, which dictates mandatory minimum sentences for serious crimes like rape, murder, and first-degree robbery.
The plan also adds eight special considerations that would render an inmate among the last to be considered for release: being identified as a level-three sex offender; being charged with child abuse or other crimes related to children; posing a risk to a known victim; being an “exceptional risk to the community;” failing a pretrial release program; violating a stalking order; having a history of three or more DUII charges in the last three years; or being convicted of unauthorized use or illegal possession of a car.
“It is changing the makeup of who is released, primarily,” Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese said at last Thursday’s board of commissioners meeting. “This is the guiding document that we follow to make those very challenging decisions. It is excluding Ballot Measure 11 offenders and domestic violence offenders from consideration for release.”
The new plan will decide which inmates get released when Multnomah County jails reach an emergency capacity of 95 percent or higher. Reese acknowledged on Thursday that while the plan is an improvement over the old matrix, the need for an emergency release plan at all is “frankly, a failure of the system to have enough resources or mitigating strategies.”
The real problem is having to mothball space during a time of good economics and supposed high tax revenue. What the #@%&$*+#$@% is going on? Is someone stealing revenues? I guess the officials will be able to put a price on crime victims pain when the damage caused by released inmates can be compared to the money saved through the mothballing! Actually the real way to fix this is for the first new victims to sue the cr@p out of the county. After 10 or 20 multimillion law suites even the challenged county officials will figure it out.