PORTLAND, Ore. — Initially intended to offer a route for drug users that avoids the courtroom entirely, Multnomah County's fledgling deflection program has made its way into court this week regardless — just one of several unintended consequences of Oregon recriminalizing drug possession Sunday.
Officials like Portland Police Chief Bob Day have been open about the "work in progress" status of the program, and that's become more obvious as the week has gone on. On Wednesday, a handful of people picked up for drug possession made their first court appearances. At least one of them was going to be offered deflection inside the courtroom.
That's a departure from the original plan. Initially, Multnomah County's goal was to open a 24/7 drop-off center for deflection on Sept. 1, when drug possession became illegal again. But county chair Jessica Vega Pederson pushed the opening to mid- or late-October due to mounting issues with the fast turnaround.
On Wednesday, a Multnomah County spokesperson said that they've cleared a permitting hurdle for the forthcoming deflection center. Meanwhile, the Baltimore-based group hired to run the facility, Tuerk House, is making progress on hiring staff. As of now, the vague October timeline for opening is still the plan.
With no deflection center in place, "mobile deflection" launched this week in Portland with limited hours — 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday — offered when outreach workers from groups like 4D Recovery can meet Portland police officers at the scene of a drug arrest.
But in an apparent effort to make the program more equitable, Multnomah County leadership decided after enforcement was underway to offer deflection for anyone who qualifies, no matter the time of day; but they'll be doing it in the courtroom when they can't do it on the street.
"It's important because its what's fair. Everyone who is eligible for deflection should be entitled to receive deflection services," said Multnomah County spokesman Ryan Yambra. "When they show up at their next court appearance, Multnomah County or one of Multnomah County's partners will do outreach and see if they can connect that person to deflection services ... So, what people should know is there's deflection taking place all the time in Multnomah County — so whether its during business hours or outside business hours, there's still an option for people for deflection."
In and out of court
Even with that last-minute expansion of the program, there are clear gaps. County outreach workers were supposed to meet with one man in court Wednesday morning to offer him deflection. However, the man never showed up — neither did the outreach workers. The court then issued a warrant for the man's arrest.
"Given the nature of the addiction cycle, as well as people's encounters with law enforcement, this is something that we are prepared for and we know that it takes multiple times for somebody to be ready to accept treatment," said Yambra. "So whether that means they say yes to deflection the first time or if it takes numerous encounters to get somebody on the path to recovery, we are doing everything we can to meet people where they're at."
Tuesday saw the first few drug possession arrest cases — ones ineligible for deflection — go before a Multnomah County judge. Some had had active arrest warrants and others were charged with additional crimes beyond simple drug possession, making them ineligible for deflection.
In one case, the district attorney's office said it did not have information from police needed to proceed, so they closed the case. In another case, a judge set bail at $75,000 for a man who faced charges for dealing drugs, not just possessing them. A third case was dismissed because no public defenders were available to represent the defendant, despite his history of skipping court appearances.
"He has a county hold out of Washington County, where he's failed to appear five times on (first-degree theft)," a deputy district attorney told the judge. "On his older Multnomah County case, he failed to appear for a call in February, failed to comply with PRS in December for failing to comply with the residential treatment placement, failed to appear twice on that lower case. I see very little odds that we're going to see him again (for a hearing in that case).
"That said, given that ... there's no attorney, there's not much we can do in this circumstance, so he's going to be released with a Washington County hold and when we see him again, we'll see him again."
"Yeah," the judge agreed. "Legally, without counsel, the least I could do is hold him for another seven days. I'm doubtful, but I don't have any reason to expect … "
"No, and I'm not not recommending otherwise ... I'm not asking that that happen on these particular charges in these circumstances," the district attorney said. "I was just outlining the apparent futility of what we're doing."
Mobile deflection
Since Sunday, seven people have qualified for deflection and accepted the offer. One of them was 33-year-old Wade, whom Portland police officers approached when they saw him holding fentanyl foil.
Wade qualified for and accepted deflection, so the officers waited for about 10 minutes while outreach workers responded. Theoretically, Portland police have agreed to wait up to 30 minutes for that response.
During the wait, KGW reporter Blair Best spoke with Wade about the experience. Even if he accepted the deflection offer, he wasn't pleased about it.
"They saw me put a foil in my pocket, but I wasn't smoking nothing .... I just think they're stupid at how they're treating us out here, for real," Wade said. "I'm 33, I've been out here since I was 12 ... I don't know if I want to do it (treatment) or not."
"Why?" Best asked him.
"Because I want to be out here with my family," he said.
RELATED: Oregonians share mixed reactions after law recriminalizing hard drug possession goes into effect
When outreach workers from 4D Recovery arrived, they attempted to get Wade into a detox facility for immediate treatment, but didn't have any luck.
"We called a couple places to see if we could get him in right away," said Elly Staas with 4D. "Unfortunately, that's not usually how it works. So we gave him the proper documentation to either get ahold of us again, because he doesn't have a phone, and we told him to show up at Hooper Detox tomorrow and every day this week until he gets in."
Staas said Wade was informed of the consequences if he doesn't follow through — namely that he could face arrest and jail if police catch him again in the next 30 days.
For the outreach workers, the process with Wade took about 30 minutes, but they were unable to get him any kind of immediate help. Now, with Wade left on the streets, it's up to him to follow up.