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House Doubles Prison Treatment Dollars
Reps. Barker and Shields carry Corrections bills to easy passage.
Salem, Ore. - June 12, 2007 - State Representative Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) carried the budget bill for the Oregon Department of Corrections to passage on the floor of the Oregon House of Representatives today. Rep. Chip Shields (D-N/NE Portland), Chair of the Public Safety Subcomittee of Ways and Means, assisted in the floor presentation.
Senate Bill 5539, the Oregon Department of Corrections budget, doubles treatment spending to $12.8 million. (See this story in The Oregonian for more details.) The budget includes $1 million to ensure that offenders at the highest risk to re-offend will receive evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapy, which has been demonstrated to reduce recidivism.
"I am pleased that the House has increased treatment dollars in this Corrections budget," said Shields. "I am also happy that we have increased dollars for community corrections by 18 percent."
Prior to joining the legislature, Shields was founder and executive director of Better People, a living-wage employment and counseling program for former offenders.
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