Elections have consequences, a truism demonstrated last week in Grants Pass, Oregon (pop.: 34,533), where dozens of inmates poured out of the Josephine County jail Wednesday, some running, yet none pursued by law enforcement because voters two weeks before had chosen their release over a tax increase.

 

The sheriff’s office released 39 inmates, dropping the population at the jail to 60, divided evenly between federal prisoners held on contract and state prisoners serving mandatory minimum sentences. About half of the released inmates will finish their sentences on work crews, while the rest, who are innocent until proven guilty, will continue to wait for trials. Lower jail staffing levels will leave only 10 jail beds for arrestees, which will compel police to cite and release most suspects. “We had no other alternative based on our funding predicament,” explained Josephine County Undersheriff Don Fasching.

 

That funding predicament is the result of the long-term decline of Oregon’s timber industry, which has seen logging on federal lands drop by 90% since 1989, costing counties like Josephine to lose millions of dollars in revenues. Although Congress tried to replace the timber money with payments via the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, which paid out to 33 of Oregon’s 36 counties, Congress ended the program in 2011.

 

Unable to balance the county budget, Josephine County’s commissioners asked voters to approve a plan to increase the county’s property tax rate, which is Oregon’s lowest at 58 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, to $1.99 per $1,000 over four years, still under the state average of $2.81. By a vote of 57 percent to 43 percent, with turnout of 51 percent, however, voters rejected the tax hike. County Commissioner Don Reedy commented that voters “just don't believe we're broke.” But a local resident argued at a Commission meeting after the vote that “government is broken and cannot be fixed” and hoped a tax revolt would start that night in Josephine County.

 

In addition to the inmate releases, the sheriff’s office expects to eliminate 70 of its 98 jobs, the local prosecutor will lay off four attorneys and develop a list of crimes it will no longer have the resources to prosecute, and the juvenile justice shelter will close. Meanwhile, applications for concealed weapons permits have skyrocketed, as residents fear crime will increase. For the benefit of worried residents, the sheriff’s department published photos of the released inmates online. Among those released was Kristopher Sutton, who has been charged with having sex with a minor, failing to register as a sex offender and witness tampering.

-Matt Bewig

 

Oregon County Releases Inmates amid Budget Cuts (by Jeff Barnard, Associated Press)

Because of Tax Levy Defeat, Josephine County will Release Prisoners and Cut its Sheriff's Department (by Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian)

Josephine County Begins Releasing Jail Inmates (by Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian)

Released Inmate Summary Report (Josephine County Sheriff’s Office) (pdf)