To: Governor Kate Brown
Oregon: Fund education not executions!
Governor Brown recently announced the state budget which includes tax increases and service cuts to make up for a huge $1.7 billion dollar deficit. Meanwhile, a recent report found Oregon spends twice as much on incarceration as it does on college and our high school graduation rate is the third worst in the nation.
A new study shows Oregon spends tens of millions of dollars on a death penalty system that isn't used. There hasn't been an execution in almost 20 years! We should free up the millions spent on this system and put it towards other priority issues facing our state, such as schools, healthcare, or solving more sexual assault cases. Gov. Brown should immediately commute Oregon's death sentences to life in prison with no parole and redirect the savings into funding critical services!
Why is this important?
Oregon is the only state in the nation that spends twice as much on incarceration as it does on colleges. [1]
Oregon's high school graduation rate is third worst in the nation. [2]
A new study by researchers at Lewis & Clark and Seattle University shows that the death penalty is much more expensive than the alternative, life in prison without parole. [3]
[3] http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2016/11/how_much_does_the_oregon_death.html