Oregon State Senator Chip Shields (left) and Iowa State Rep. Wayne Ford. Photo by Jake Thomas.

By Jake Thomas
jthomas@portlandobserver.com

Rep. Wayne Ford, Iowa’s longest-serving black legislator, thinks that Oregon may have a nice reputation, but could learn from his home state on solving racial disparities in its criminal justice system.

Last year, Ford, who is in town for a summit on Oregon’s overrepresentation on teens and minorities in the criminal justice and welfare systems, spearheaded a bill that offers a simple solution to address the disproportionate number of minorities in prison: racial impact statements.

Such statements work much like financial or environmental impact statements: they look at existing numbers and estimate how a revision to the state’s sentencing policy might affect minority groups, causing lawmakers or voters to think twice.

When the Des Moines Democrat carried the bill, Iowa surpassed every other state in racial disparities in its criminal justice system.

Oregon, despite its progressive reputation, is no stranger to similar disparities. Although minorities make up less than 10 percent of the state’s population, they account for over a quarter of its prison population.

The situation causes Ford to wonder if the Beaver State might one day surpass Iowa in disproportionately locking up minorities.

“Sooner or later the world’s going to know how ya’ll really are here,” Ford told the Portland Observer. “I’m in shock.”

In the 1990s, Oregon began enacting “get tough on crime” measures like Measure 11 that caused the state’s prison system to explode, and have further concentrated minorities behind bars.

According to numbers from the Oregon Department of Corrections, about 44 percent of people prosecuted under Measure 11 are minorities.

The situation prompted then-State Rep. Chip Shields, D-Portland, to introduce a similar bill last legislative session, which ended up going nowhere.

Shields, who was appointed to the State Senate last month, said that he was a bit naïve in thinking that his Democratic colleagues, many from more conservative rural and suburban districts, would instantly grasp why the legislation was needed.

He managed to get it out of committee, but too many lawmakers worried that the bill was somehow related to the hot-button topic of immigration and thought that supporting it would come back to haunt them.

Now Shields is building a broad coalition so that when he reintroduces it, likely in the 2011 legislative session, it’ll have a better shot. He said that he convinced 30 people at the summit to volunteer to support its passage, and hopes to get Portland Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Chief Rosie Sizer on board.

“I don’t think this is very controversial. People just needed to be educated on it,” said Shields

In Iowa, Ford said the law is already having an impact. He recalled how a bill intended to correct disparities caused by the state’s drug sentencing policy was introduced to the legislature. Ford requested that a racial impact statement be produced, which revealed that the bill would have the opposite effect.

Ford said that lawmakers in North Carolina and Illinois are interested in passing similar legislation, and will be traveling there shortly to drum up support. He said the White House has also expressed interest in it.

He added that it would be terrible if other states began passing legislation modeled on Shields’ before his bill was enacted into law.

“That’s the worst thing that could happen,” said Ford. “I think that Senator Shields has done something that I think would hopefully have fruition pretty soon.”