Yes, and together we will keep on saying it. Stop the silly spending on toys and dreams, then transform the still empty Wapato facility into a mental heath center. Free up space for real offenders who need jail, create a holding place for assessment and treatment, and actually become a real (anything but green and sustainable) model for the nation.

I assure you this guy is not mentally I'll, but using 'bath salts'. It's nasty stuff and not showing up on urine drug screens (which could add to their appeal).Sure, they need containment, medication and stabilization but it's also aggravating that they chose to do this resulting in taking up dollars and space that so many truly mentally ill struggle to have access to. At least with meth these folks generally clear with some medication and sleep, not so easy with bath salts. This is the beginning of a very dangerous problem.

Hales?

Never mind.

A mayoral candidate would never assault... er, never mind.

The Wapato Facility shouldn't require much transformation: it was designed as a mental health and addiction treatment center for obligatory inpatients.

That's what they said when promoting the bond measure anyway.

""All together now: Portland needs more mental health facilities and a lot fewer developer toys like streetcars and mystery trains.""

~~~>Ya but developers can't make any money on that!

It's worth noting that Big Pipe was a running for re-election as County Commissioner in 1996 and Char-LIE (Hails from Washougal) was serving his 1st term, and hadn't even had time to quit yet.

Here's the Ballot Title summary for Multnomah County's 1996 Measure No. 26-42

THREE YEAR LEVY TO OPERATE JAILS, BOOK SUSPECTS, TRACK CRIMINALS

QUESTION: Shall Multnomah County operate jails, levy 77.96 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation outside tax base for three years beginning 1996-1997?

SUMMARY: Three year serial levy keeps existing county jails open and operating; provides operating money for newly constructed jails, booking and transport facility, and computer criminal tracking equipment.

{further} MANDATORY TREATMENT
A majority of offenders in jail are drug or alcohol abusers. Incarcerating them protects the public safety for a period of time but does not solve the problem of treatment. This levy pays for mandatory treatment for drug and alcohol abusers who can not be rehabilitated wihout intensive intervention.

No arguments AGAINST his measure were filed.

Somebody needs to tell the story of how the obligation for urban renewal financing requiring a vote of the people -- Portland's private equivalent of the Glass-Steagall repeal -- was done. Time to put the names of the perpetrators of that one up on a poster in the town square.

As I recall, Wapato was intended to be both a jail and a treatment center, and the county fiefdom that ran rehab had some demands that looked like bad security to the sheriffs.

The sheriff side said jails were their turf and they would set the rules. Rehabbers said the rules were bad for treatment success.

Both sides needed adult supervision, but the county board was too weak to make it all work. Sad.

What's sad is the MultCo Commissioners passed two bond measures: 26-42 and 26-45.

The first was for operating funds for the "new jail" and the second was for construction funds.

Both measures were passed, but the County renegged on their 26-42 statement of purpose and simply reduced the amount of general fund money spent on operating jails.

Meanwhile, we've been told that opening Wapato was impossible due to lack of operating funds: why didn't you use the 26-42 funding for the purpose of operating the new jail, as required by the measure? Why didn't you go to the voters with a new bond measure for operating funds to open Wapato?

Why don't we form a "Jail District" and vote on that instead of a Library District? Surely providing drug treatment and helping the mentally ill improve themselves while incarcerated is AT LEAST as important as having libraries opened on Sundays and Mondays.