New acrimony is flaring in the debate about a controversial new Oregon law that expanded early release for state prison inmates, reports the state’s Statesman Journal. Sen. Floyd Prozanski sharply criticized a radio ad campaign sponsored by the Oregon Anti-Crime Alliance. The group’s ad campaign, aired statewide this week, featured a case in which a former inmate was freed late last year by the new early-release law. The ex-convict recently was accused of new criminal charges.
The ad said: “A woman is asleep in her own apartment. Suddenly, she’s attacked by a registered sex offender and convicted burglar. Even worse, he got out of prison early because of a law Oregon politicians passed last summer. And he’s not the only one.” Prozanski described the ad as distorted and inflammatory because it didn’t provide specifics about Oregon’s early-release law, or key time frames about the featured inmate’s case. Last year, the legislature expanded so-called “earned-time” sentence reductions for prison inmates from 20 percent to 30 percent.