Brown leaves with soft-on-crime spree

In final weeks, Governor doubles down on lenient approach to crime and punishment

(Ron Cooper/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

[Ed. Note: Please welcome Joseph Gomez to the Roundup family. Joseph is a recent Willamette University grad, great writer, and all around smart guy. He wrote this piece, the first in the history of the Oregon Roundup not written by me. The plan is for Joseph to contribute regularly to the Roundup, adding some “newsier” coverage of Oregon politics and policy. His addition is part of a bunch of exciting Roundup growth we’re in the process of unveiling in the coming weeks. More on that soon! - Jeff Eager]

Today marks the last day of Kate Brown’s second, and presumably final, term as governor of the State of Oregon. Brown has, infamously, been the least popular governor in America in recent years, according to polling. Brown’s legacy, for many, will be defined by her strict, and unpopular, response to COVID.

As her term has come to an end, however, Brown has focused on burnishing her reputation for a lenient approach to criminal justice. Even as elected progressives from Portland to San Francisco to New York are getting touch, rhetorically at least, on crime, Brown has gone on a get-out-of-jail-free spree.

As recently as the last few weeks, Brown has utilized her office’s s power of executive clemency to an extraordinary degree. This constitutional power allows her to commute (change) a person’s criminal sentence, fully pardon a crime, or reprieve (pause) a punishment. It also grants the ability to eliminate fines and fees.

Beginning June 12, 2020, Brown commuted the sentences of 963 nonviolent offenders (also citing further criteria) justifying the move as an effort to curb COVID-19 transmissions. She reduced the sentences of 41 prisoners by one year because of their work as firefighters during the 2020 wildfires.

On Sept. 28, 2021, Brown ordered clemency and commutations for 72 prisoners convicted as juveniles and considered the release of 140 others. This was justified as both a consequence of a 2019 amendment to Measure 11 and because the people said measure impacts “are disproportionately people of color and typically have greater capacity for rehabilitation than their adult counterparts.”

Brown’s lenience may deepen her unpopularity on her way out the door: a recent poll that finds 64% of Oregonian voters believe the criminal justice system is “not tough enough.” And the Oregon Roundup has covered Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s newfound tough-on-crime approach. Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose policy lead Brown has otherwise followed frequently, has rhetorically moderated on crime.

“That’s part of the ‘pendulum swing,’” Rod Englert, a retired Multnomah County Chief Deputy Sheriff with nearly 60 years of law enforcement experience. Many politicians have noticed that “they’re not as popular as they were when they let criminals run the street… when you continue to not recognize the problem.”

According to Englert, the “pendulum” appears to be swinging in the direction of less progressive policy as the last few years of “thinking that ‘the more I hug and praise those that are violating the law,’ thinking, ‘I can turn them around’” have shown “it’s not working,” Englert said. 

While criminal justice reformers approved of Brown’s efforts, some notable Republicans, victims’ families, and journalists raised alarm. A lawsuit filed by former GOP governor candidate andcurrent State Representative-Elect Kevin Mannix and two district attorneys challenged the order claiming that Brown violated a requirement of clemency procedures to notify the victims of the crimes at hand.

The Oregon Supreme Court rejected Mannix’s case.

Some victims claimed to have been retraumatized by the ordeal and perturbed by the lack of prior notification. Journalists and the local media also voiced their disapproval of Brown’s actions in her lack of transparency throughout the process.

Englert had mixed feelings about the reforms.

“I’m a firm believer in rehabilitation, and it can be done, but you can’t be too progressive about it,” he said. He described how accountability must be preserved, both in his “career of holding people accountable and people recognizing that they will be held accountable if they violate the law and minor offenses.” Brown’s COVID-19 commutations, Englert said, are “a big move” and he feared that it risked allowing the people who have been commutated or released to “not be held accountable.”

Accountability can come in different forms, according to Englert. In the case of the wildland firefighter commutations, “if [the prisoners] went out there and they served well, it’ll be known.” Englert had no problem with those commutations, assuming each of the prisoners genuinely deserved it. “Reward for good behavior is just as important as holding people accountable for bad behavior,” Englert said.

He also shared the transparency concerns, specifically because each criminal’s case should be looked at individually throughout the commutation process and there’s as much “evidence possible that they’re not gonna be a repeat offender.” Although the perceived broadness of Brown’s commutations reveals the stakes for competent evidence gathering.

“I’m sure they’ve done that somewhat, but it’s almost like waving a wand like ‘Okay, you’re going to be free.’ It’s a progressive movement that is not recognizing the victims in the community, the people that have been harmed. And not only are you harming one or two people in a family, you’re involving their whole family, you’re involving that neighborhood,” Englert said.

In 1984, Oregon voters approved a constitutional amendment reinstating the death penalty. Last month, Brown used her commutation power to effectively override, for now, Oregon’s Constitution. On Dec 13th, 2022 she commuted the sentences of all 17 people on death row to life in prison without parole. She advocated against capital punishment for its immorality and ineffectiveness: “It is an irreversible punishment that does not allow for correction; is wasteful of taxpayer dollars; does not make communities safer; and cannot be and never has been administered fairly and equitably.”

While this follows the current trend of negative death penalty sentiment in Oregon, some Republicans and victims’ families refuted with the fact that Oregonians voted to keep the policy in 1984 and Brown's lack of victim consultation, respectively.

Further down the criminal justice severity scale, on Dec. 21, 2022, Brown forgave more than 1.8 million traffic violation fines and fees, which had prevented nearly 7,000 Oregonians from reinstating their driver’s licenses, and had justified the action as an effort to not deprive low-income Oregonians, especially people of color, of the lawful ability “to meet their daily needs.” She also claimed that suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid traffic fines is “inequitable” and “ineffective.”

Progressive activists celebrated the order. Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Sandy Chung said: “People of color are disproportionately targeted in traffic enforcement meaning they are more likely to be ticketed and receive a traffic fine… This means that it is more widespread for people of color to have a driver’s license suspension due to inability to pay a ticket. They are more likely to be trapped in a cycle of debt, punishment, and restricted freedoms than wealthier and whiter people.”

Englert was hesitant about forgiving the fines.

Despite his confidence in the commutation process, he was disturbed by the “enormity of it.” They also clashed with some of Englert’s experience with preventing crime.

“Minor crimes erupt into major crimes,” he said. “It’s like snowflakes on a roof, it builds up and builds up. If you’re being very lenient about all these crimes and letting people do things that were against the law years before, that snow builds up on the roof and pretty soon it collapses.”

Englert also remarked on the timeliness of the reforms within the last days of Brown’s term. “It sort of sends a message,” he said.

Kate Brown obviously wants Oregon voters to know that she regrets nothing about her lenient approach to crime during her term as governor. If anything, in this parting message, she doubled down on that reputation, even while voters and other Democratic politicians look to get tougher.

Kate Brown likely made few friends outside the progressive criminal justice establishment with her closing act. But then, she has shown nothing if not a knack for doing unpopular things.

Joseph Gomez is from San Carlos, CA and is a graduate of Willamette University with interests in journalism, politics, and classical studies. He's currently working on finding ways to make his liberal arts degree useful to society while apologizing for the various woes his generation has brought forth upon the land.