Who will go to deflection and who will go to jail? Clackamas County lays out the guidelines

"Do we have a perfect system to deflect people into right now, even though that’s the state system that we’re all trying to work within? No, we don’t,” said West.

In less than two days, a new law goes into effect giving counties the power to deflect substance users away from the criminal justice system and into treatment.

The question we’re asking is whether the state’s largest counties are prepared for the task.

We spoke with Ben West, who is a Clackamas County commissioner tasked with helping plan the state’s third most populous county’s deflection program.

He walked us through what will happen when someone is arrested for substance use.

“So a police officer could arrest somebody. And then hopefully that is reviewed. And if that person begins to take the steps necessary, they’ll never be arraigned. They’ll never have to be cited. They’ll never have to go into the criminal justice system,” said West.

“It’s three tries and it is generally how it is and then it will all be assessed within the DA’s office,” said West.

We wanted to know what will happen if there aren’t enough treatment resources to go around statewide, given that studies show this has been the case in the past. That prompted us to ask West how the county will make sure that no one goes to jail simply because there are not enough resources.

"We’re gonna do our best to get the resources online we’re doing that now, people can see that effort that we’re engaging in. That’s a fantastic question. We want to get the necessary beds up. That’s the right thing to do to get people to care they need but also allowing somebody to subsist in their addiction and not giving them a place where they can get the care they need and sometimes that is actually in the jail system. Then we need to still be willing to have that as a tool within the toolbox that gets somebody the care they need,” said West.

How this is all going to impact the county’s purse strings is something we’ll have to wait and watch.

“We still probably don’t have enough money to stand up the deflection program from the state that’s been given to us,” said West.

https://katu.com/news/local/a-look-at-who-goes-to-jail-and-who-wont-under-clackamas-county-deflection-plan
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News post in at: September 1, 2024, 3:03 am.

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