Partnership for Safety and Justice (PSJ) (Oregon)

Partnership for Safety and Justice is a multi-faceted, statewide advocacy organization based in Portland, Oregon. PSJ was founded in 1999. We have developed a pioneering and provocative model for our work – one that brings together all of those most directly affected by crime, violence and the criminal justice system (people convicted of crime, survivors of crime, and the families of both) to advocate for approaches to public safety that are more just and that effectively build safer, healthier communities. We are the first advocacy organization in the country to unite all of these constituencies. We believe this approach offers a holistic perspective on needed system change and a valuable strategy for shifting Oregon towards more effective, prevention-based approaches for creating community safety.

Goals & Strategy:

First and foremost, we seek measurable, progressive change to the criminal justice system and a more balanced approach to public safety. Specifically, we seek over the long term:

1. A redirection of public resources away from less effective and more costly approaches to public safety (incarceration) toward more effective public services that can build strong, safe communities (education and human services) and prevent future violence and crime;

2. Increased community services and support for survivors of crime and violence; and

3. Removal of the barriers to community re-entry faced by formerly incarcerated people.

We believe that a single strategy is unlikely to create and sustain the kinds of social change we are working towards. Therefore, we focus on a range of strategies that can be described as a combination of coalition building, legislative advocacy, grassroots leadership development, organizing, public education, and research.

A sampling of recent accomplishments:

• In 2011, PSJ was central in the passage of HB 2707. The Safe Kids, Safe Communities Act changes the default placement of youth charged as adults being held pre-trial to juvenile facilities in order to keep youth out of adult jails.


• PSJ was heavily involved in passing a landmark corrections savings law in 2009 (The Safety and Savings Act). The Act included a range of sentencing reforms that saved roughly $50 million in reduced need for prison beds and reinvested those savings into smarter approaches to public safety like addiction treatment, community corrections, and victim services.


• In both 2009 and 2007, PSJ was a key organizer for a statewide campaign to increase funding for the Oregon Domestic and Sexual Violence Services Fund. The ODSVS Fund provides vital resources to community-based organizations addressing violence.


• In the fall of 2009, PSJ won a campaign to get the City of Eugene to change its hiring practices to make jobs more accessible to qualified people with conviction histories.


• In 2008, PSJ served as the lead organization in a campaign that successfully defeated a regressive statewide ballot measure designed to address addiction-driven crime through creating mandatory minimum sentences. If the measure had passed, it would have resulted in the largest prison building policy and incarceration of non-violent offenders in the state’s history. The measure would have gutted the state budget, spending billions of dollars on prison construction and destroying the social safety net in the process.


• Also in 2008, PSJ supported the passage of a county resolution in Oregon’s largest county that prevents youth under 18 from being held in adult jails. Research shows that holding juveniles in adult jails and prisons dramatically increases the risk of physical abuse and suicide, as well as increasing the likelihood they will re-offend. The county resolution was a great victory for our youth justice work.


• In 2007, PSJ won a local campaign to change the hiring policies and practices of Oregon’s largest county to make jobs more accessible to people with conviction histories. Stable employment is a key factor in reducing recidivism and we helped our county commissioners make the link between good public safety strategy and the need to reduce employment barriers for formerly incarcerated people.


• We were central in a coalition effort that succeeded in ending the City of Portland’s 15-year Drug and Prostitution Free Zone ordinance in the fall of 2007. These policies had a long history of civil rights abuses and racial discrimination.