PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 4

At 5 feet, 5 inches and 135 pounds, with a slight, almost feminine build, Troy Lee Ford does not appear to be a menace to society. And, in fact, the congenial, 35-year-old Portland native hasn't proven to be much of a threat to anyone but himself.

Still, on Jan. 29, when Multnomah County's cash-strapped sheriff released scores of accused car thieves, burglars, drug dealers and repeat drunk drivers from the downtown jail in Portland, Ford stayed put in his eighth-floor cell at the Multnomah County Detention Center.

That's because Ford is considered a higher risk to end up back behind bars than the 85 inmates Sheriff Bernie Giusto freed last month.

When it comes to jailbirds, Ford is perched near the top of Portland's roost. The man known to his family as Cupid has flown into jail 61 times in the past five years. This ranks him the fourth-most familiar face to deputies who handle the booking and fingerprinting downtown (he stands seven bookings behind 40-year-old Sylvanius Stuckey Jr., the most frequently booked person in Portland since 1998).

Ford's dizzying spin through the revolving door comes at a huge cost: Over the past five years, his run-ins with the law pencil out to more than $230,000 in public costs related to his arrest. (See "The $231,640 Man," below)

Framed in a background of poverty, single-parenthood and drugs, Ford's life story seems frustratingly familiar. But as we are battered by daily bursts of bad news about budget cuts and released crooks, the saga of this high-school dropout also raises timely questions: Does it really make sense to spend $46,000 a year to combat a single shoplifter? And with our correctional system imploding, what will happen to the Troy Fords of this city?

Headlines deliver a steady diet of robbers, murderers, perverts and kidnappers, but Troy Ford typifies the more common grist for the local criminal-justice machine.

For much of the past decade in Portland, person-to-person and property crimes dropped even as police, jail and court costs rose steadily, thanks to a jump in arrests for drug violations, trespassing and disorderly conduct.

A sheriff's study in 2000 pinpointed the main culprit: a group of 2,700 residents suffering from drug addiction, homelessness or mental illness--and sometimes all three--who keep coming back. The study found that less than 5 percent of the 45,000 people who pass through the sheriff's intake center each year were consuming almost one-quarter of the resources.

Ford, who is addicted to crack, is typical of this select group, known as the "frequent flyers." Most of the top 100 most frequently booked inmates have drug histories. Two-thirds are black, and almost all of them are men. "There are so many of us in here," Ford says, "and it's all for crack cocaine."

Also typical is his home outside of jail: He has none, which helps explain the scars around his eyes and on his upper lip, back, stomach and feet.

At the same time, Ford stands out from other repeat offenders, according to Ray Velez, his former probation officer. "He's very polite, which is unusual," says Velez. "He's a very nice person, easy to get along with."

"When I think of Troy, I think of an intelligent young man," says Helen Sloan, his aunt. "He is so creative. He is a caring person."

Sheriff's Sgt. Shawn Skeels, who's known Ford for years, says, "Troy used to be a fighter. He's a pit bull, I've seen it. But I think he has mellowed. He's smart, a straight-shooter.... He's a hard worker."

Sheriff's Lt. Mike Shults has seen Ford pass through the jail many times and says addiction is the problem. "Troy wants to do the right thing. He's on the line between being a really good guy--and a really bad guy."

Born in Northeast Portland, Ford drew his nickname in short order when two friends of the family peered into the crib and said, "He's like a little cupid," recalls Sloan. "They started singing that old song, 'Cupid, draw back your bow, and let your arrow go.'"

Ford grew up shuttling from one family member to another and also spent time in a foster home. He was exposed to addiction early on; Sloan says she was a heroin junkie until entering a treatment program when Ford was 11.

Cocaine might seem passé now, but it ripped through inner cities across the country in the '80s, decimating African-American neighborhoods. Crack, which is cocaine mixed with baking soda, is cheap and provides a highly addictive euphoria when smoked.

"The high only lasts, like, five minutes," says Ford. "Once you come down, you're in the dumps. So you keep chasing that top-of-the-world feeling, which keeps you out there chasing the drug itself."

Ford says he didn't even know what he was smoking when he started, but the habit soon propelled him into a life of crime. Starting in 1987, when parole violators were sent to prison, he served close to a dozen stints behind state bars. More recently, his primary residence has been the county jail, where low-level criminals are housed and probation violators are now held. He's averaged more than 12 bookings per year since 1998.

His rap sheet shows a few serious charges. In 1988, he was so crack-hungry that he threatened a man for money, leading to a second-degree robbery charge. A third-degree robbery charge came in 1993 when he jerked away from a security guard when he was nabbed for shoplifting. Once, he kicked a guard in the groin.

But in recent years, he's racked up relatively minor charges as he's supported his habit by shoplifting, prostitution and serving as a go-between for dealers and other addicts.

The record also makes clear that the pile of public funds spent on Ford is not because he is a master crook, but because he is not.

Once, Ford boarded a bus without paying and was caught because he fell asleep before reaching his stop. Another time, a cop found him napping on a bus-stop bench, a crack pipe lying on the ground beneath him. Last year, he shoplifted at the same downtown store twice in the same day, then hit another one after a store clerk, a former classmate, recognized him. The security guards at the downtown Meier & Frank, where he's been busted more than 15 times in the past five years, know him by sight--but he still keeps coming back.

Many of his trips to the downtown jail come simply because he's missed a court appearance or skipped a probation appointment. Other times, he's caught in one of Portland's drug-free zones--lines that the City Council has drawn around sections of downtown and Northeast Portland--from which Ford has been banned because of previous possession charges.

He says his behavior is the product of a drug-numbed brain and a self-destructive urge: "I'm either going to get high, or I'm going to go to jail."

Ford's revolving-door journey has been so excessive that, to a Portland cop's amazement, at one point last year booking staff at the jail refused to fingerprint him and take a mug shot when he was arrested. Their explanation? "They already knew who he was," read a police report, and "it wouldn't do any good."

For some people, Ford's story is proof that incarceration isn't always the best answer to a problem.

"Jail has no effect on Mr. Ford," says Velez, his former probation officer. "He's addicted, and they're not doing a thing for him. They're just warehousing him and then he's right back out." It is, Velez says, "a huge waste of money."

Ford says, "It's like they tell the addict: Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. If you're just doing the same thing, locking us up and setting us free, how can you expect us to change?

Velez and Ford have a surprising ally in this view.

Dan Noelle is a Republican who says that as a Portland street cop, he had a policing style reminiscent of Attila the Hun. Nonetheless, after the "frequent flyers" study came out, Noelle, who was then the county sheriff, became convinced that treatment needs to be focused on repeat offenders. "If they get arrested five, eight times in a year, a red light should go on," he says.

Ford has been offered meaningful drug treatment at least three times in his 17 years in jails and on the streets. Once, he refused an assignment to a jail-based program in Hillsboro that had a bad rap among inmates. Another time, he relapsed just before showing up to a community-based residential program. The third time, he was doing well but dropped out when he felt his peer group and counselor were picking on him for his homosexuality. "I regretted it when I left," says Ford.

Despite his lack of success at treatment, Ford says the option should be there for when people become ready.

"If it was that easy--that I could just stop being an addict and get a job--do you think I would have spent 18 years of my life in and out of jail, coming in and out of addiction, sleeping outside, getting stabbed nine times?" he asks. "You think that I would have went through all that if it was that easy to just stop?"

Given that roughly half of addicts relapse after treatment, many corrections officers conclude that treatment, not jail, is the real waste of resources. Noelle says you've got to have both.

"You can say, 'Troy is a lost cause,' and 'Treatment doesn't work--look at Troy,'" Noelle says. "But if Troy really has not completed an intensive drug and alcohol treatment program, then we don't know that yet."

Treatment programs aren't free. A four-month community-based residential program runs $9,600, leading to an average 47 percent decrease in jail days per year. "Even if we put Troy into residential treatment, and even if it lasted for six months," says Noelle, "my guess is that we'd be spending less money on him than we are now by having him booked 20 times."

Unfortunately, Noelle's conversion came too late for Ford. A highly effective in-jail drug-intervention program was cut years ago. Since then, things have gotten worse. Just ask the current sheriff.

Sitting in his county office on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, Bernie Giusto is at a loss for how to help the Troy Fords of the world when his corrections budget is on life-support. "I've made difficult decisions my whole career," says the former Gresham police chief. "But the fact is, it's now beyond my experience. I don't know what people think is happening with the system, because we aren't going to have a system anymore. Arrest is the only thing left."

Last month, the county Sheriff's Office cut its number of counselors from 40 to 22 and slashed its drug and alcohol experts from 12 to 2. Those who remain will spread their efforts among 1,576 inmates, of whom about 75 percent enter the system drunk or high.

Nonprofit providers of drug and alcohol treatment, as well as mental-health services, are cutting back services drastically, and there is talk that many may go out of business.

The cuts make Ford angry. "Everything helpful they want to take away," he says. "That's what's crazy about this whole situation."

Treatment or no, Sgt. Skeels says addicted frequent flyers have but one choice. "They either change or they die," he says. "Most of them wait too long, and they die."

The county is likely to create even more frequent flyers as the revolving door spins even faster for those like Ford. The jails have 500 fewer beds than at the system's peak in 2001, and Giusto says he may have to cut hundreds more. District Attorney Mike Schrunk has said he will no longer prosecute the misdemeanors and low-level felonies such as those Ford commits.

That means while arrests will continue, they'll result in less jail time--a fact that Ford doesn't necessarily see as a blessing.

He concedes that his stretches behind bars have kept him alive. "Jail has saved a lot of people," he says. With fewer beds, he says, "there's going to be a whole lot more homeless people, a whole lot more people committing crimes to support their habit."

And, he adds, a whole lot more deaths. "If the dry-out period is not there, what do you expect?" he says. "It don't take a rocket scientist to figure it out."

Ford is determined that he won't be one of the casualties. "I can't even comment on what I'm going to do if there are no jail beds, because I don't plan on being one of those people."

He's been reading a book, Trauma and Addiction, which describes the mental prison from which Ford hopes finally to escape.

"It's so crazy," he says. "I'm learning as much as I can about the drug so I can defeat it. I've got to help myself, because no one else is."

WW intern Francesca Monga provided research assistance for this article.

2002: Troy Ford's Odyssey

For those looking for evidence of the futility of "revolving door" justice, Troy Ford's rap sheet isn't a bad place to start. Police and sheriff's records show that Troy Ford spent 2002 piling charge upon charge.

Jan. 1: Woke up in jail, same as the past three New Year's Days. Released Jan. 8. Jan. 12: Picked up at Northwest Park and Everett with a crack pipe. Issued a drug-free zone exclusion, banning him from the area. Jan. 19: Caught shoplifting at Niketown (pants and pullover worth $210). Asleep when officer arrives; unable to follow simple directions when awakened. Cited (given a ticket and assigned a court date). Feb. 2: Picked up walking up the middle of North Greeley with a crack pipe in sock at 1:14 am. Taken to North Precinct. Released. Feb. 12: Reported for shoplifting by clerk (former classmate) at Phat Gear on Martin Luther King Blvd. (jeans and a shirt). Booked into jail. Convicted of accumulated charges: drug possessions, parole violations and theft. Sentenced to seven months, released early for good behavior on May 13. May 21: Caught shoplifting at the Lloyd Center Meier & Frank (two pants-and-jacket sets worth $124). Cited. May 29: Detained while walking in the middle of Northwest 6th with a crack pipe in pocket. Cited. May 30: Caught shoplifting at downtown Meier & Frank (two pairs of plaid pajamas worth $102.98). Cited. June 2: Shortly after midnight, found by officer sleeping at a bus stop bench at Southwest 4th and Harris, cell phone and crack pipe lying on the ground beneath him. Cited. June 5: At 3:12 am, arrested after taking a cab from Northeast Portland to downtown without money for fare. Booked into jail. Sanctioned five days for not reporting to his probation officer. Released June 10. June 15: Picked up at Northwest 6th and Davis for missing a court date. Booked on a theft and trespass charge into jail. Released June 16 pending trial. June 17: At noon seen shoplifting at Ross Dress for Less on Southwest 6th (pants, shorts and hat worth $52.97.) Leaves before police arrive. At 6:10 pm returns to Ross and is caught shoplifting (shirt worth $24.99). Cited. June 25: Caught shoplifting at Fred Meyer (Sony portable CD player worth $79.99). Cited. June 28: Caught shoplifting at Niketown (Jordan pants and jacket worth $115). Arrested and booked into jail, sanctioned for not reporting to his parole officer. Released July 3. July 11: Detained after stealing a clerk's tip jar at Kaffee Bistro on Northwest 2nd Ave., one block from Central Precinct. Released. July 15: Picked up at Northwest 4th and Davis with a crack pipe. Booked into jail. Released July 16 pending trial on accumulated theft and trespass charges. July 19: Picked up at 8:45 am at Northwest 5th and Burnside, carrying a crack pipe. Went to court that day, booked into jail. Released July 22 pending trial on past theft charges. July 23: Picked up for shoplifting at Fred Meyer on North Interstate ($24.99 CD player). Cited. July 26: Picked up at Northwest 6th and Burnside on a warrant for accumulated charges and missing a court hearing. Booked into jail. Convicted on two counts of theft and four drug-possession charges. Sentenced to 70 days, released for good behavior on Sept. 13. Sept. 19: Seen at 5th and West Burnside "approaching people, then walking on when he got no response." Tells officers he "was just looking for some crack down here, like all the other addicts." Cited for drug-free zone violation. Sept. 20: Caught shoplifting at Safeway at Southwest 10th and Jefferson (deodorant, soap and cologne totaling $14.27). Cited. Sept 21: Caught shoplifting at Nike on MLK (shirt and pants worth $58). Cited. Sept. 27: Picked up at 2:20 am at Northwest 5th and Davis carrying a crack pipe in the hood of his sweatshirt. Cited. Sept 29: Picked up at 4th and West Burnside for violating his exclusion from the drug-free zone. Cited. Sept. 30: Officer finds him sleeping on a bus at Gateway Transit Center after having not paid his fare. First word upon wakening: "Mom." Cited, given an exclusion notice from TriMet. Later that morning, violates TriMet exclusion by standing at bus stop at 9th and East Burnside; carrying a crack pipe. Cited. Oct. 2: Sighted at midnight in the drug-free zone at Northwest Park and Everett. Cited. Oct. 6: Picked up at Northwest 6th and Davis for violating drug-free zone exclusion. Booked into jail on theft and trespass. Released Oct. 7 pending trial. Oct. 8: Caught shoplifting at the Ross Dress for Less on Southwest 5th (coat worth $29.99). Oct. 10: Found at Northwest 5th and Burnside carrying pieces of suspected crack in his left coat pocket. Cited. Oct. 12: Found in the drug-free zone with a crack pipe in his sleeve. Booked on past charges of theft, trespass and missing a court date. Released pending trial. Oct. 13: Found carrying a crack pipe at Northwest 6th and Everett in the drug-free zone. Cited. Oct. 17: Picked up, booked on same charges as before, released pending trial. Oct. 18: Caught shoplifting at Fred Meyer on 1704 N Interstate (sweatpants and top worth $65). Cited. Oct. 20: Picked up at Southeast 7th and Burnside at 6:41 am for failing to appear in court and for a parole violation. Booked into jail for past charges of drug possession and trespass, convicted and sentenced to 20 days for a probation violation. Released Nov. 8. Nov. 17: Picked up at 5th and West Burnside on warrants for missing court dates. Booked on past charges of giving police false info, theft and a drug-free zone violation. Released pending trial. Nov. 26: Car he's riding in is pulled over at 6th and West Burnside. Officers find a crack pipe in his right shoe. Booked and released pending trial for it and same charges as previous booking. Dec. 9: Picked up and booked into jail on 10 accumulated charges. Will spend rest of the year (and fourth consecutive New Year's Eve) in jail. Convicted on several counts of drugs, probation violations. Sentenced to nine months. Thanks to good behavior, he is scheduled for release March 7.

The $231,640 Man
What it costs to keep Troy Ford in--and out--of jail.

How expensive is it to deal with a crack-addicted thief like Troy Ford? Exact figures are impossible. We weren't, for example, able to get estimates for the cost of his near-constant probation since 1998. But based on information from police, lawyers, court officials and national experts (as well as the occasional educated guess), our grand total is $231,640 over the past five years, or an average yearly tab of $46,328. Here's our math:

STREET COPS: $10,600

Most of Ford's recorded police contacts spark citations issued on the spot--tickets that let him remain free, but assign a court date. We estimate an average citation takes 20 minutes. If he's booked, assume another hour's wait, say police. With 61 bookings and approximately 75 citations and other police contacts in five years, we estimate 106 officer street-hours, priced at $100 an hour to include salary, support staff, equipment and paperwork.

BOOKING: $12,200

Arresting Ford means taking him to the downtown jail. There, photographing and fingerprinting him costs $100 in staff time, a Multnomah County Sheriff's Office spokesman says. We assumed another $100 for county health staff to screen him medically and Department of Community Justice staff to examine his record to decide whether he stays in jail.

JAIL: $171,490

The Sheriff's Office says it costs $110 to keep someone in jail one day. Ford has spent 1,559 days there since 1998.

LEGAL COSTS: $35,600

Studies show the average urban felony indictment results in $2,000 in court and other legal costs, so Ford's 10 felonies translate to $20,000. John Roman, an expert at the Urban Institute, pegs misdemeanor cost between $500 and $1,000 per case, so we calculated Ford's 20 misdemeanors at $750 a pop. Ford's attorneys are always court-appointed and state-funded. We estimate his 12 violations (not requiring lawyers) cost the court $50 each.

PROBATION: $1,750

Since 1998, Ford has almost always been on probation during the 267 days he hasn't been in jail. The state Department of Corrections says probation costs $7 to $10 per day. We used the lower number for an estimated 250 days.

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