Victims want prevention and treatment, not more incarceration – Street Roots News

COMMENTARY | Oregon legislators are considering a bill that reflects these preferences

Crime survivors have a seat at the public safety table, but to ensure that criminal justice policy solutions reflect victims needs, advocates should always seek more ways to elevate those voices. So at this public safety crossroads, while Oregon lawmakers debate whether to open a second prison for women, its fortuitous that a first-of-its-kind study has emerged to shed light on survivors perspectives on criminal justice policies.

The National Survey on Victims Views confirms that theres no unified victims voice and that people impacted by crime are as diverse a group as any. The survey does reveal some general preferences among survivors, though. In the broad-reaching paper, findings include identifying the groups that are most vulnerable to crime, assessing how incidents impact victims, asking whether the criminal justice system is meeting survivors needs, and inquiring about victims perspectives of the criminal justice system and public safety policies.

This last set of responses is one that merits Oregons attention right now, and there we find that the overwhelming majority of crime victims believe that the criminal justice system relies too heavily on incarceration, and strongly prefer investments in prevention and treatment to more spending on prisons and jails. This preference is true for survivors across the demographic board: for women and men; white, black and Latino people; rural, suburban and urban residents; and Democrats, Republicans and Independents. A majority or plurality in each group of survivors wants policies that rely less on incarceration and more on solutions.

Victims views are also consistent between survivors of different types of crime. When asked whether there should be more focus on punishing people who commit crimes or on rehabilitating people who commit crimes, the data aligns: 61 percent of property crime victims and 60 percent of violent crime survivors prefer rehabilitation.

This finding should not be surprising. While responses to crime vary among people and evolve over time, one thing is overwhelmingly consistent: survivors of crime want to ensure that the person who harmed them doesnt do it again and doesnt harm anyone else.

One Oregonians personal story is a case in point. A woman and her sister were struck at 70 mph by driver whod been drinking too much and chose to drive. The crash paralyzed the woman, and shes since lived with a significant spinal cord injury; her sister sustained mild traumatic brain injury. Between her wheelchair costs, medical supplies, and other expenses resulting from the accident, she knew what accountability meant for her: the driver should receive addiction treatment to lower the risk that hed harm others in the future, and she felt that he should be mandated to work and generate income that could pay restitution toward some of her costs incurred from the crash. In line with the overall preference of survivors in the National Survey on Victims Views, she wanted for the person who harmed her to receive addiction treatment, not a long prison sentence.

Its important to reiterate that the findings arent homogeneous. Some survivors do want a prison sentence, but by a margin of 3 to 1, victims prefer holding people accountable through options beyond prison, such as rehabilitation, mental health treatment, drug treatment, community supervision or community service.

Among those who participated in the survey, survivors prefer:

Coincidentally, or perhaps as a result of research and evidence-based approaches to public safety, Oregon legislators are now considering a bill that exactly reflects these preferences. The Safety and Savings Act (House Bill3078) proposes:

The Safety and Savings Act is perhaps reflective of this reports findings because its legislative champions have firsthand experience working with crime victims, people whove caused harm and the families of both. Leading HB 3078 are Reps. Carla Piluso (a former police chief), Tawna Sanchez (a volunteer who works with women in prison) and Ann Lininger (a public defender). And support broadens from there.

Business leaders, womens victim/survivor advocates, union groups, faith leaders, childrens advocacy groups, civil rights organizations and addiction treatment associations are all working on behalf of this bill because they share the same priority: to achieve the greatest public safety impact by holding people accountable for crime while also interrupting the cycles that sometimes include harming others.

Oregon is at a critical juncture. We can open a second prison for yet more women who are primarily serving longer sentences for addiction-driven drug and property crimes. Or we can continue progress that began in 2013 with reforms that achieve accountability yet reduce incarceration by reinvesting in local services for solutions-based responses to crime. At this juncture, its valuable to know what the majority of survivors want.

And as for the woman who survived the crash, she went on to start an advocacy organization to promote criminal justice policies centered on crime victims needs. Her little shop grew in size and stature, merged with another organization and became Partnership for Safety and Justice.

Talia Gad is the communications director for Partnership for Safety and Justice, a Portland nonprofit that advances solutions to crime that ensure justice, equity, accountability, and healing to achieve safe and strong communities.

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Victims want prevention and treatment, not more incarceration - Street Roots News