Our state continues to incarcerate people who are sick and dying even though it doesn’t serve the interests of justice. Data shows Oregon has an aging prison population with more and more people likely to need complex medical care at great expense to state budgets.
Despite this, in the last decade, more people who met the medical and legal rules for compassionate release died awaiting a decision than were actually released. Oregon’s system of compassionate release from prison isn’t working. Fortunately, there’s a bill actively being considered by the legislature that could help. Senate Bill 1560 would create a task force to review Oregon’s broken compassionate release system and figure out how to fix it. The task force will look at the humanitarian need for reform as well as the cost savings it could bring.
Please take two minutes to ask your legislators to support SB 1560 now.