This evaluation of the Multnomah County Community Action Agency (MCCAA) Latch Key Child Care Program was undertaken at the request of the Multnomah County Planning and Evaluation Department. Latch Key is one of three day care programs classified as "developmental programs for youth" for which Multnomah County is the fiscal agent. The other two are Littles, a full-day pre-school day care program, and Head Start, an educational and developmental program for pre-school children. Littles and Latch Key comprise what is known as Programs for Children, a comprehensive child care program which serves children of low-income working parents who live in the East County area east of 82nd Avenue, plus the Arleta, Errol Heights and Lents Districts which lie within the Portland city limits. With the exception of Mt. Hood Community College, which operates a small day care program, Programs for Children provides the only publicly-supported child care services in the above area, which was designated as a "poverty" area by the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1970. This report will evaluate the Programs for Children administration and Latch Key centers only.

This research sought to determine the impact of the Older Americans Act of 1965 and its subsequent amendments on the ages population in Portland-Multnomah County from 1965 to 1977. After a comparative analysis of ages services prior to the Act of 1965, and the elderly services subsequent to the Act, the conclusions revealed that there was a significant impact made upon the lives of seniors in Portland-Multnomah County area.

Pretrial release (PTR) is the permanent or temporary freedom from incarceration for criminal defendants awaiting adjudication of their cases in court. From Anglo Saxon times in England, people accused of non-capital crimes were generally permitted to remain free until judicial officials could hear the charges against them. In America, pretrial release has been advocated by the courts since the colonial era. The U. S. Constitution requires that bail not be excessive, but leaves governments free to decide how bail laws are administered. The study briefly traces the historical developments of PTR up to the present time. The study then centers on the PTR process of three Oregon counties (Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill) and observes the decisions of judges, release assistance officers, and jailers in relation to the release outcomes for a study group (N=619) who were booked into jails of the three counties in 1993. Background data on defendants in the study include gender, race, the crimes for which they were arrested, criminal history, and the disposition of the current charges. Seventy-one percent of the defendants received PTR. Significant factors in the release outcome, as shown by logistic and multiple regression analyses, were probation violation status, felony in the current charge, narcotics offenses in the current charge, and charged with multiple offenses. Gender and race were not strong influences on the release outcome. Hispanic defendants (N = 108) in the study, however, were detained in jail longer than Whites (N=394). Hispanics were less likely than Whites to be released on the same day of arrest and served generally longer jail terms than Whites under similar sentences. Possible explanations are that Hispanics were more frequently charged with distributing narcotics and charged with multiple offenses. Implications suggest further studies on minorities in judicial and corrections settings. The study has applications in judicial and corrections policies on the early release of inmates, an important issue as jails become increasingly overcrowded.

In March 2011, Multnomah County's Juvenile Services Division (JSD) in Portland, Oregon implemented a new program model called Functional Family Probation Services, a case management model based on the principles of Functional Family Therapy. Under this model JSD Juvenile Court Counselors deliver Functional Family Probation Services to medium and high-risk youth on probation; both to the youth and their family in their home. This qualitative case study examined the extent to which the Juvenile Court Counselors and Community Justice Managers implemented Functional Family Probation Service's components and recorded their opinions regarding Functional Family Probation Services as a case management model. The study included observations of consultation meetings and interviews of 17 Juvenile Court Counselors, Community Justice Managers, and Senior Managers. The primary results of the study revealed that the Functional Family Probation Services intervention is well received by the county's youth and families and that Functional Family Probation Services increases family functioning. Additionally, both observations and self-reports from the Juvenile Court Counselors and Community Justice Managers indicate that Functional Family Probation Services requires individual and organizational changes critical for its successful implementation and sustainability.