Racial Impact Statement Legislation sponsored by Senator Chip Shields and Senator Jackie Winters Passes Oregon State Senate
Bill allows legislators to obtain data on how proposed legislation would impact racial minorities
SALEM - In a show of broad bipartisan support the Oregon State Senate passed legislation today that gives state legislators the ability to obtain data on how a proposed law would impact racial minorities when it deals with sentencing and child welfare policies.
Senate Bill 463A requires the Criminal Justice Commission to issue racial impact statements when requested by a legislator. Racial impact statements are a relatively new tool developed to estimate the disparate racial impacts of proposed sentencing and child welfare bills, in the same way that fiscal or environmental impact statements describe the budgetary and ecological effects of policies. Racial impact statements were first enacted by the State of Iowa in 2008, after a national report by the Sentencing Project found that Iowa had the highest rate of racial disparities among prison inmates.
"Like in the State of Iowa, this bill would allow Oregon legislators to make informed decisions when crafting solutions to crime, child welfare, and delinquency," said Senator Jackie Winters, Republican from Senate District 10 and the only African American senator in the Oregon State Senate, Co-Chairing the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Safety and a member of the Subcommittee on Human Services. "It also helps ensure that racial justice costs are included in the public dialogue regarding criminal justice choices."
On the Senate floor, Senator Winters also acknowledged the work of Senator Chip Shields, District 22 of N/NE Portland, in drafting and working the bill. Senator Shields first drafted the bill in 2009, in an effort to help address the well-documented racial disparities in the Oregon criminal justice and human services systems. According to the Oregon Department of Correction, African Americans make up about 2 percent of Oregon's general population but about 10 percent of Oregon's prison population. African Americans in Oregon are likewise six times more likely to be in prison than whites, and nationally African American males are more likely to be imprisoned than receive a 4-year college degree.
One factor contributing to the over-representation of minorities is sentencing policy that disproportionately affects minorities, such as the federal statute that led to long sentences for people arrested with crack cocaine (most of them black) and much shorter sentences for people arrested with powdered cocaine, most of whom are white.
"This bill gives legislators one more tool to assess whether policies we propose give a fair shake to every Oregonian," said Senator Shields. "I'm proud the bill garnered such broad bipartisan support this session."
SB 463A is also supported by the Oregon Racial Equity Report Card Project. The project is led by the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO), Basic Rights Education Fund, Center for Intercultural Organizing, Causa Oregon, Partnership for Safety and Justice, Urban League of Portland, and the Western States Center, and it has an advisory committee of more than twenty organizations based in communities of color, immigrant/refugee communities, and allied organizations. The project alerts legislators to racial equity legislation and rates how they vote in an annual Racial Equity Report Card. In the first report card issued after the 2011 legislative session, the Oregon Senate received a "C" grade and the House of Representative received a "D" grade in addressing racial equity.
SB 463-A passed the Senate on a 27-2 vote and will now be sent to the House of Representatives for consideration.
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For a summary of The Sentencing Project's work on racial impact statements click here:
http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/rd_abaarticle.pdf
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State Sen. Chip