If there is no reauthorization of the Safety Net, the federally funded program that mitigates for the lack of revenue generated by federally owned lands, things will look very different in southwest Oregon. 

 

In preparation for that, a number of things are happening in the public safety arena.  

 

Oregon’s criminal justice system is a cooperative effort between federal, state, county and city jurisdictions. Many services are provided at the county level: County jail operations; law enforcement, investigation and patrol; community corrections; juvenile justice; emergency operations and emergency response; search and rescue operations; criminal prosecution; justice courts; and court facility operations. Paying for these services is the responsibility of individual counties. In the southwest Oregon counties, it is safety net funding that pays for almost all of these services.

 

In the 2009 state legislative session, SB 77 was passed unanimously. The bill sets up a process to decide how much law enforcement is required to meet statutory requirements, and whether counties are meeting their statutory obligations. If the county is found to be deficient, SB 77 further describes a process to analyze the county’s capacity to provide a higher level of service and to implement that service. Take a look at SB 77 at http://www.leg.state.or.us/09reg/measpdf/sb0001.dir/sb0077.en.pdf

 

SB 77 is a solid step in the right direction for southwest Oregon. One of the difficult issues that county commissioners in the region are grappling with is what level of mandated services passes muster with our legal obligations. Oregon’s statutes are full of mandates for counties (recording, elections, law enforcement, planning, mental and public health, just to name a few) but they are very short on specifics about how much service meets legal requirements.

 

The Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) is charged with overseeing the SB 77 process. The CJC is made up of experts in the field who volunteer their time to serve on the commission. Their main charge is to continually develop the criminal justice system in Oregon, and develop a long range plan for the whole system. More on the CJC at http://www.oregon.gov/CJC/about_us.shtml

 

The CJC will hold their first meeting on SB 77 on April 12, from 10:00-4:00 pm at the Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.