Sergeant Jacobs talk to Dill Picklers at the Justice Center

Last Friday, October 7, 2011, DPC led “How Is Justice Served?,” a walking tour of Portland’s criminal justice system. Here’s a report back by Mary-Margaret Wheeler-Weber; photos courtesy Kelsey Curtis.

A friendly, chatty crowd gathered in front of the Dill Pickle Club offices. We were greeted with a few brief announcements, then set off for the Justice Center. On the way we walked by people gathered for Occupy Portland at Lownsdale and Chapman Square and exchanged waves.

The Justice Center is a multi-purpose building which houses the Multnomah County Detention Center, the administrative headquarters of the Portland Police Bureau, Central Precinct of the Portland Police Bureau, some offices from the Multnomah County District Attorney, Multnomah County Department of Community Justice and State Courts. We quickly made our way through security to enter the Center, in spite of rigorous screening that required many of us to take off our shoes, belts, rings, etc!

Occupy Portland protesters outside the Justice Center

See more images and get the full report after the jump…
Sergeant Jacobs met us in a conference room on the second floor to give us an overview of the Justice Center and the justice system. His talk was dense with content and information. In the interest of brevity I’ll limit myself to three things we heard from him (and each subsequent speaker).

From Sergeant Jacobs:

• The City and County jointly built the Justice Center in 1983. Everyone arrested in Multnomah County, whether from Gresham, Portland, or Wood Village, is processed at the Justice Center. It has the only maximum security facility in the state.
• The Multnomah County Detention Center has adopted use of an open booking area that allows most people in custody to wait for processing in a big room while watching television.
• 33% of the population at the facility have some form of mental illness.

The group then walked across the way to City Hall, where Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland (MHAP) met us in a meeting room with a multi-media presentation and a tremendous amount of information, ranging from 1870’s Portland to the James Chasse case and beyond. MHAP is, Renaud said, an impartial, independent, peer-driven non-profit based in Portland that advocates for people with with mental health diagnoses or drug addiction.

Renaud said that the people who most often go to jail are alcoholics, illegal or legal drug addicts, or struggling with a mental illness, and showed the following video to illustrate the point:

Three things Renaud said:

• The number of Portland police shootings is similar to comparable U.S. cities.
• MHAP has assembled a list of 220 people who were killed by Portland Police since 1970 while drunk, loaded or mentally ill.
• The Justice Center is Oregon’s biggest mental health provider. In Renaud’s opinion, it is more likely that police can be trained to do the work of mental health social workers than social workers can be trained to do the work of police.

At the end of Renaud’s talk, Chris O’Connor, a Public Defender, took our group on a tour of the Multnomah County Circuit Court. As we walked through the building, O’Connor pointed out aspects that were old and outdated, such as a steep, narrow stairway that he compared to a scene from “Being John Malkovich,” and suggested it was not the safest place to be in an earthquake.

Public Defender Chris O'Connor speaks at the Multnomah County Circuit Court

Three things O’Connor said:

• A theft of $999 or under is a misdemeanor. Anything exceeding than that is a felony.
• Most cases are resolved by plea agreements rather than at trial. There are many reasons why people take plea agreements, and those for whom having a criminal record is not a big deal are more likely to take them.
• Many of his clients are alcohol or drug dependent or have a mental illness. One of his big challenges is getting people to show up for their hearings on time.

At the end of our day, we gave a round of applause for O’Connor, Dill Pickle staff and each other, and a goodly crowd stayed for more questions, eager to learn more about the city’s justice system.