ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] of Oregon… latest bill designed to reform Measure 110
“We’ve been told flat out that our state’s return to criminalization for people experiencing addiction is not up for debate. No matter on what side of the debate one falls, the concerns we’ve shared with legislators demonstrate incredibly troubling and significant process breaches with HB 4002 that should give serious pause to anyone who cares about democracy and integrity,” wrote Jessica Maravilla, Policy Director of the ACLU of Oregon.
“Reports about the next changes to HB 4002 indicate that deflection now will be merely optional for each county instead of required – and may even have levels of discretion for local police and sheriffs’ departments.” Wrote Kelly Simon, Legal Director of the ACLU of Oregon. “What this means is that someone addicted to drugs in one county may be arrested and left to suffer and potentially die in jail, while a person addicted to drugs in the next county over might be offered access to deflection and treatment services. Geography-based access to justice is no justice at all. Lawmakers also continue to ignore the fact that there will be no public defense attorneys available any time soon for the likely thousands of new cases that recriminalization will inject into the criminal system. We expect that, in practice, HB 4002 won’t be much different from the regressive, harsh policies pushed by the so-called ‘Fix and Improve Ballot Measure 110′ interest group, which is led by the former head of Oregon prisons and funded by billionaires.”
Original Article (Fox 12):
ACLU of Oregon hits back at latest bill designed to reform Measure 110
Artwork Fair Use: Melissa Mansour
