Prison reform advocates to visit Central Oregon, meet with community leaders

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) – An advocate for prison reform will be visiting Central Oregon in coming days to meet with officials and local groups to talk about the impact of the justice system and prisons on Oregon communities.

Kyle Black will be sharing what she has learned as someone who was incarcerated for 26 years within our state’s prison system. As a Policy Associate with the Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC), a nonprofit law firm that serves incarcerated clients around Oregon and advocates for reform, Black brings her lived experience and professional expertise to the conversation around prisons and the justice system.

Oregon taxpayers are funding the state prison system to the tune of more than $1 billion a year, with millions more spent on courts, prosecution, defense, and policing.

At any given time, around 22,000 Oregonians are in some form of incarceration, be it a prison, jail, the Oregon State Hospital, a youth detention facility, or a federal prison.

Since the late 1970s, Oregon’s prison incarceration rate has grown from a little over 100 people in prison per 100,000 of population, to nearly 400.

The high cost of Oregon’s criminal legal and punishment systems and the number of families impacted by the system should be a cause for reflection by our communities about whether this is serving all our interests.

“As someone who’s spent years locked up, I’ve seen firsthand how incarceration doesn’t always achieve the rehabilitative goals that will help prevent future offending,” Black said. “There are many different views that we all hold about prisons and the legal system and what they’re getting wrong, but I hope we can all agree with the need to challenge systems that aren’t working to prevent harm to our families and communities.”

To inform her work with OJRC, Black is on the road this fall with a colleague, Kyle Hedquist, who is also a Policy Associate with the organization. Black and Hedquist are touring the state to visit towns and cities all over Oregon to talk to elected officials, civic leaders, students, and community groups about criminal justice. Their goal is to build connections and learn more about the impact on local communities of prisons and jails.

“I don’t expect everyone to agree with OJRC about the changes that need to be made in our prisons,” said Black. “But I do believe that we can find common ground on the basics: we all want to be happy, healthy, and safe. I want people to reach out if they’re interested in dialogue about these issues and I’m ready to talk.”

In recent months, Kyle Black and Kyle Hedquist have been representing OJRC at the Legislature during the legislative session as advocates for prison reform. Their work has had such an impact that they were featured by The Oregonian this spring in an article on their unusual transition from prison to policymaking. With the next legislative session on the horizon in early 2024, Black and Hedquist will be taking inspiration from their engagement with Oregonians around the state to inform their work at the Capitol.

While in Central Oregon, Kyle Black will be visiting Prineville, Redmond, Bend, and Sisters on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 3-4.

The Oregon Justice Resource Center is a nonprofit law firm founded in 2011 serving clients around the state with free criminal, immigration, and civil rights legal services. The goal is to promote civil rights and improve legal representation for communities that have often been underserved in the past: people living in poverty and BIPOC among them. OJRC works in collaboration with like-minded organizations to maximize our reach to serve underrepresented populations, to train future public interest lawyers, and to educate our community on issues related to civil rights and civil liberties.