Oregon struggles paying for massive elderly prisoner population; lawmakers mull bill aimed at ending real estate fraud.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Oregon is home to the largest population of aged prisoners in the United States, according to a report done by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Willamette Week’s Gabriella Dunn wrote a fascinating article that was published Wednesday about the costs this reality has had on the state.
“You have someone that’s a murderer but is now in the final throes of Alzheimer’s,” says state Rep. Jennifer Williamson (D-Portland). “What do you do with that guy? He has a mandatory life sentence but is clearly not in the same state, mentally or physically, as when he committed the crime.”
Corrections will spend more than the $200 million—or 14 percent of its overall budget—originally authorized for prison health care in 2013 to 2015.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Salem are looking for ways to help free seniors protect themselves from real estate predators.
OregonLive.com reported on the potential bill that is being considered.
Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn, is sponsoring House Bill 2780, which blocks escrow agents from proceeding with a real estate deal when the seller is 65 or older and the price of the property is more than 20 percent below the parcel’s appraised or assessed value. She said she offered the bill as an extension of the Legislature’s continuing work on elder abuse. She noted that a recent state report showed that real estate represented a large percentage of the cost of elder financial abuse.
The requirement, if passed by the Legislature, would add “a pause” to a transaction in which a homeowner aged 65 or older appeared to be selling a property at a significant discount, Parrish said. It would add one more document and one more check to the process of transferring a piece of property, she said.
