A state grant-making committee voted Thursday against fully funding Clackamas County’s drug deflection program, saying that the program did not meet its standards.
“It’s completely unexpected,” Clackamas County District Attorney John Wentworth told OPB Friday.
Starting in September, police in Oregon will be able to arrest and charge people with misdemeanor drug possession. As part of the state’s effort to continue directing people towards treatment, lawmakers set aside $20 million to help counties create and fund deflection programs, which are meant to be a collaboration between behavioral health entities and police.
The grants are administered by the Criminal Justice Commission, a state agency whose executive director reports to the governor. A separate committee, made up of behavioral health experts, law enforcement and others, approves funding and ensures the county programs follow the law.
According to the grant application, Clackamas County’s program was set to begin in September, like several others. But in a committee meeting Thursday, the group decided that the county’s plan did not do enough to keep people out of the criminal justice system.
“If we don’t receive the funding we will not have a deflection program,” Wentworth said.
According to its grant application to the state, Clackamas County planned to refer people cited for drug possession to the county’s community court. The court deals with low-level charges.
“Community court, you still see a judge, but we have what’s called a service model where nonprofit organizations and county agencies that are dedicated to assisting folks in areas of housing, food, job opportunities are all in one place there at the court,” Wentworth said.
Wentworth said his office has been heavily involved in the deflection program.
The county expected to use the approximately $1 million in state funding, in part to hire two deputy district attorneys to help run the program.
The committee members explained their reasoning at Thursday’s vote.
“It’s really about the definition of deflection,” Paul Solomon, chair of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission who also sits on the grant committee. “It’s our understanding based on the reading of the state law that his program resembles diversion and not deflection.”
Others on the committee questioned the significant role that Clackamas County district attorneys would play in the deflection plan.
“This is like having a surgeon do the work of a school nurse,” said Lane County Circuit Court Judge Suzanne Chanti, flagging that the program looks “more like diversion than deflection.”
Wentworth said there is a process to appeal the funding denial, which he plans to pursue.
