ACLU takes aim at Measure 11 in a plan to cut Oregon’s prison population in half

Oregon State Correctional Institution east of Salem (Salem Reporter/Aubrey Wieber)

In recent decades, Oregon’s prison population has ballooned. In 2016, it was nearly five times that of 1980.

In January, 14,713 people were held in Oregon prisons.

Now, a civil rights group is proposing Oregon cut that population in half, targeting the state’s minimum mandatory sentences required under Measure 11.

Criminal justice reformers have long blamed what they see as the state’s harsh sentencing…