By Hannah Hoffman
Statesman Journal
PORTLAND — Oregon will not need to build a new prison during the next decade and may not need to open its existing vacant facility, according to the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.
Oregon will add just 219 inmates during the next 10 years, the agency said, and the population is expected to decline through 2017.
“We have not seen a forecast like this in decades,” said communications director Liz Craig.
Department of Corrections officials originally predicted 2,300 more inmates by the end of the next decade. This estimate shows vastly slower growth than anyone previously anticipated.
The decline in the next three years can be attributed largely to House Bill 3194, said Craig Prins, executive director of the Criminal Justice Commission.
The bill modified Oregon’s sentencing laws to allow probation for more property crimes and allow some low-risk inmates to leave prison sooner.
It put more money into community corrections programs at the county level.
Full story: New Oregon prisons? Forecast says probably not