PORTLAND — African-Americans in Oregon were convicted of felony drug possession at more than double the rate of whites in 2015, a disparity that played out across methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine cases statewide.
The findings emerged from a major study — the first of its kind in Oregon — undertaken by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. Gov. Kate Brown earlier this year directed the agency to examine racial and ethnic disparity in the state’s criminal justice system.
The conclusions come as the Legislature is likely to take up Brown’s proposal to reduce some drug possession felonies to misdemeanors. The governor’s budget for the next biennium two years notes that the policy shift, supported by associations representing Oregon sheriffs and police chiefs, would treat addiction as a public health issue and address the disparities.
Brown spokesman Bryan Hockaday said the governor sought the analysis after reading Michelle Alexander’s book, “New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” which examines the impact of imprisonment on African-Americans.
She “wanted to get a better handle on the reality here in the state because the first step to really addressing it in a comprehensive way is really understanding what the problem is,” Hockaday said.
Among the study’s other findings:
• Native Americans were convicted of felony drug possession last year at five times the rate of whites, the highest of any racial or ethnic group. They also were convicted of a first felony for drug possession at four times the rate of white people.
• In Multnomah County, African-Americans were convicted of cocaine possession at a rate of 131 per 10,000 residents last year, compared with a rate for white people of .43 per 10,000 residents. Black people were convicted of methamphetamine possession at a rate three times that of white people.
The analysis is particularly striking given that federal public health surveys show illicit drug use among Americans across race and ethnicity is roughly the same, said Mike Schmidt, director of the Criminal Justice Commission, which serves as a clearinghouse for state criminal justice data.
“Everyone who uses or possesses (illicit drugs) has committed that crime,” Schmidt said. “Whether or not they are caught is completely different.
Schmidt’s staff examined cases in which drug possession was the person’s only felony conviction. Cases in which a person was convicted of stealing a car and possessing heroin, for instance, weren’t included.
The agency also looked at convictions that represented the offender’s first felony.
Last year, 1,642 people had their first felony conviction in Oregon for drug possession, with African-Americans convicted at a rate nearly twice that of white people.
Criminal defense lawyers said for many, particularly young people, a first felony has a profound and long-lasting impact on their ability to find work and housing.
John Robb, a former public defender in Multnomah County who now works in private practice in Portland, said a felony conviction “moves you into a different class of people.”
“Basically, picture life as a long hallway with doors,” he said. “If you get convicted of a felony, especially at a young age, three or four of those doors close. You just can’t go into them.”
Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote said he was surprised by the state’s analysis showing African-Americans in his county were convicted of heroin and methamphetamine possession at rates higher than whites last year.
He said the data prompted him to dig deeper into the circumstances behind each case to see if anything in particular stood out. He and his staff examined 52 drug possession convictions for African-American or Hispanic suspects.
“I couldn’t see anything,” he said. “I took it back to the whole team. We don’t see a pattern.”
