Thread: Oregon will stop commuting sentences of illegal immigrants

Oregon will stop commuting sentences of illegal immigrants
By Associated Press
Story Published: Apr 10, 2011 at 5:38 PM PDT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The state is scrapping a program that commuted the sentences of prison inmates who are illegal immigrants, saying it didn't save as much money as anticipated.

The Statesman Journal reports that Gov. John Kitzhaber, who took office in January, won't renew the program when it expires in July.

It was designed to save the state money by shaving as much as six months off the sentences of illegal immigrants in state custody for nonviolent offenses. They could then be turned over to federal authorities for deportation.

But the program did not live up to expectations due to legal complications and wasn't worth the administrative effort, according to the governor's office. Corrections officials say the program saved $172,000 by shaving time off the sentences of 44 inmates commuted by then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski last year, rather than the $2.1 million that was projected to be saved on 200 inmates.

Forty-two of the 44 came from Mexico, records show, and most landed in Oregon prisons on drug charges.

"This program wasn't giving us the cost effectiveness that was originally thought," said Christine Miles, Kitzhaber's press secretary. "We also want people to know that if you come to Oregon and you do a crime, no matter where you are from, you need to do the time."

The doomed state program was modeled after a touted federal program, commonly called Rapid REPAT.

Spearheaded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, early deportation programs for illegal immigrant prisoners reportedly have worked well in some states, such as Georgia, New York and Arizona, resulting in thousands of felons being sent home before they completed their sentences.

Oregon's prisons currently hold 14,026 inmates; 1,289 of them are in the country illegally, according to the Corrections Department. The daily cost of incarceration for an Oregon inmate is $84. By extension, the yearly cost for housing 1,289 illegal immigrant inmates would total about $39.5 million.

Under an agreement between state and federal officials, prisoners enrolling in the program were required to waive their rights to challenge deportation in exchange for commutation of their sentence by the governor and early release. They were required to sign agreements stating that if they were caught again in the United States illegally, they would face as much as 20 years in federal prison.

Corrections officials said the eligibility criteria limited the pool of candidates.

"Initially, we had a big pool to look at and start weeding through," said Guy Hall, administrator of the Office of Population Management for the state Department of Corrections. "But once you got through that initial bubble, so to speak, the people waiting in line as they marched through their incarceration toward their last six months really slowed down."

Screening inmates for the program required extensive time and effort by corrections officials, Hall said.

"I think people were assuming that the entire six months would be saved, but there were some people that were a month to the door or a week or so to the door," Hall said. "So we didn't glean the entire six months savings for lots of folks in the initial screening."

A federal appeals court ruling further hamstrung the program, holding that certain illegal immigrants facing "stipulated removal" have a right to counsel and, when necessary, qualified translators.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/119573839.html

We need to put a prison on the border! One way in and one way out! And the ones not from mexico load prison planes up and dump em' off in they're country of origin! "Have a nice day!"

Originally Posted by stevetheroofer

We need to put a prison on the border! One way in and one way out! And the ones not from mexico load prison planes up and dump em' off in they're country of origin! "Have a nice day!"

We need teleporters running 24-7.

Dixie