Oregon sheriff criticizes new bail reform policies: Residents want criminals jailed

foxnews.com:

An Oregon sheriff said the state's recently implemented bail reform policies are making her community less safe and contradict what rural residents want. "If Portland or other communities want to be okay with letting some of these people facing very serious crimes out, then that should be their choice as a community," Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan told Fox News. "Our residents have decided that if people commit crimes, they want them to go to jail." Oregon Senate Bill 48 took effect July 1 with the aim of reducing the criminal justice system's reliance on the use of bail.

It orders that defendants charged with a variety of misdemeanors and some felonies be released without bail. "If the criminal sees that it's just a revolving door to get right out, then there's going to be less accountability because they may or may not show up to court," Duncan said.

Linn County sheriff Michelle Duncan says Oregon's new bail policies mean some repeat offenders and dangerous suspects are being released from custody before seeing a judge. (Fox News Digital) While Oregon has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the country, its most populated city has seen a dramatic uptick in homicides and other crime in recent years.There were a record 90 homicides last year in Portland, and some property crimes such as vandalism and car theft have also increased over the past couple of years. "What people don't know about Oregon is most of us in Oregon don't want to be compared to Portland," said Duncan, who oversees the sheriff's department in a rural county about 60 miles south of Portland.