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The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission has agreed to reconsider funding for Clackamas County’s drug possession deflection plan, less than a week after rejecting the county’s grant proposal.
With the reprieve, Clackamas County is once again eligible for $1.1 million to build a system to route people arrested with small amounts of illegal drugs out of the criminal justice system and toward treatment through so-called deflection.
When the Oregon Legislature overturned parts of Measure 110 in March and recriminalized drugs, it encouraged counties to set up deflection systems. To help pay for the new programs, lawmakers created the Oregon Behavioral Health Deflection Grant Program and invited counties to apply.
Twenty-eight of Oregon’s 36 counties sought a total of $16.7 million in deflection funds, to be awarded by a committee at the CJC. Only Clackamas was rejected.
“At this time, the committee has approved awards for all applications received with the exception of Clackamas County,” CJC deputy director Ryan Keck said in an email today. “The committee voted today to conduct a second review of this application.”
A meeting on the matter will be scheduled soon, Keck said.
After getting news of the rejections last week, Clackamas County District Attorney John Wentworth said the county wouldn’t offer deflection. Today, he lauded the committee for reconsidering but warned that the delay would hamstring efforts to deflect Clackamas County residents stopped for possession.
“I appreciate the committee’s decision to reconvene and reconsider its denial of our non-competitive grant application for a voluntary program,” Wentworth said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this process will likely delay the implementation of an effective deflection program that Clackamas County residents need and deserve.”
The CJC agreed to reconsider the grant application after members of a panel that advises the Clackamas County district attorney wrote to request another review.
“Clackamas County partners have been working to strengthen our network of service provision, housing placement, and support programming to reduce contact with the criminal legal system,” members of the panel wrote Aug. 6. “However, as you know, many counties struggle with the intersection of these acute needs in the most underserved communities and Clackamas County is no exception. The funding to add an intentional, community-focused deflection program is critical for our county to address acute needs early and effectively, and avoid additional crises.”
The CJC committee didn’t say why it rejected Clackamas the first time.
“The CJC does not comment on processes until final decisions have been made, however we have made all meeting recordings available in a timely manner on our agency’s YouTube channel,” Keck said.
Audio of the meeting where Clackamas County was discussed, garbled at times, indicates the committee wasn’t unanimous in its decision. During the debate, members were concerned that the Clackamas program was more “diversion” than deflection, the audio indicates.
Deflection programs aim to keep individuals away from the justice system entirely. Diversion applies to people who have already entered the criminal justice system.
Bill Stewart, a prosecutor in the Clackamas County DA’s office, said he was surprised that the CJC committee rejected the plan, which took four months to complete.
“This denial was a shock,” Stewart said in an interview.