The first decade of this century was a big one for Oregon prisons. The state's incarceration rate increased by 50 percent over the decade.
That is clearly not sustainable, and is a major reason why Oregon's Criminal Justice Commission runs a Justice Reinvestment program. It hands out grants to programs all over the state designed to reduce incarceration and recidivism, or both. Justice Commission Director Michael Schmidt visits with examples of Reinvestment programs.