Oregon still has more college students than cons. It is the trend that is ominous. In 1980 Oregon had about 2,000 inmates crammed into its aging state penitentiary and several hundred inmates in county jails. Today, there are nearly 8,200 inmates occupying the state's growing county jail and state prison beds. The Field of Fiscal Dreams is rapidly becoming the Field of Fiscal Nightmares.
Voters are as much to blame as politicians for the trend.
State Rep. Kevin Mannix, D-Salem, demanded lengthy sentences on juveniles who commit certain crimes. A majority of the Legislature refused to go along. Cooler heads on the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee quietly insisted Mannix was a grandstanding lawyer planning to run for Attorney General. There was no evidence, insisted the Legislature's conservative budget-writers, longer sentences deterred crime or protected the public. Mannix promptly filed an initiative petition mandating minimum sentences for certain juveniles and persuaded voters to approve it in 1994.