In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that a new poll finds that more than three in four Oklahoma voters support requiring all primary schools to have tornado shelters. The OK Policy Blog has a guest post on how renters can be forgotten in post-disaster recovery efforts. A new ranking of teacher preparatory programs nationwide advises students to avoid education programs at two Oklahoma regional universities.

Oklahoma corrections professionals connected the Department of Correction director’s resignation to private prison lobbying. CapitolBeatOK writes that Oklahoma’s criminal justice policies are a financial time bomb, and that the next DOC director needs to be committed to alternatives to incarceration. A state audit revealed that the state fire marshal’s office has failed to meet its legal duty to annually inspect all Oklahoma correctional facilities.

Journal Record editor Ted Streuli writes that Oklahoma’s low college attainment among minority populations should scare the pants off economic developers. The Motley Fool asks whether Chesapeake Energy’s new CEO is overpaid, with total compensation more than Chesapeake’s former CEO got paid last year and noticeably more than the chief executives of other similar energy companies. Urban Tulsa Weekly discussed how lawmakers are threatening judges who overturned unconstitutional state laws, and the Oklahoma Gazette discussed how the State Chamber is pushing for retribution against judges.

The Number of the Day is Oklahoma’s rank among the states for incidence of cervical cancer. In today’s Policy Note, a new HUD report shows that housing discrimination against minorities persists in the United States in more subtle ways.

continue reading In The Know: Poll finds most voters support requiring tornado shelters in schools

You know, just because it is legal doesn’t make it ethically and morally right for shareholders to make a profit off of incarceration of our fellow citizens. I guess with my Christian upbringing, there has always been a conflict with that.

-Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones, who has run afoul of policymakers who want to put more state inmates in private prisons. Jones announced his resignation yesterday (Source: http://bit.ly/14HGGtS).

In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones is resigning effective Oct. 1. Jones has clashed with lawmakers over a push to put more state inmates in private prisons and over flat budgets for the Department as it deals with a growing inmate population. The Supreme Court decision to strike down a voter registration law in Arizona will not affect the process in Oklahoma, which requires registrants to attest to U.S. citizenship but not provide documents proving their status. The OK Policy Blog discusses how the recently passed tax cut/capitol repairs law may have violated the state Constitution in multiple ways.

Although the state has made strides in its efforts to boost the number of residents with college degrees, Oklahoma still lags behind the national average. The heavy water usage of fracking by energy companies is affecting farmers in Oklahoma and other areas already suffering from droughts. The owner and operator of five power plants in Oklahoma as well as other sites around the country was listed as the nation’s worst greenhouse gas polluter. See the full polluters index from the Political Economy Research Institute here.

The Number of the Day is the number of months on average that low-income families receive cash assistance in Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows in one graph why smart states are taking measures to raise new revenues.

continue reading In The Know: Department of Corrections director submits resignation

As millions of families are struggling to put food on the table, now is not the time to cut SNAP. Feed The Children daily witnesses the success and efficiency of this program in meeting the basic needs of the most vulnerable. SNAP works, reaching those greatest in need.

-Kevin Hagan, president of the Oklahoma-based non-profit Feed the Children, which is fighting to stop a federal Farm Bill that would cut $20.5 billion from SNAP (food stamps) over the next 10 years. He said all of the food provided by charities in the United States only amounts to about 6 percent of the food distributed by federal food programs (Source: http://bit.ly/13U1yvx).

In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that Gov. Fallin has asked White House officials to reconsider a federal decision to pull out of the state’s Insure Oklahoma program, even though the state has not made any requested changes to the program. Oklahoma Watch reports on the impacts of Oklahoma having the worst access to dental health care in the nation. Attempts to sell underutilized state properties are being hampered by long-neglected maintenance problems. Chesapeake Energy Corp shareholders rejected a proposal that would have made it easier to replace the entire board of directors all at once.

NewsOK profiles an undocumented Oklahoma City University student who is benefiting from the Obama administration’s deferred action policy for immigrants brought to the United States as children. The Muskogee Phoenix examined reasons behind the high levels of food insecurity in Muskogee and surrounding counties. The Oklahoma-based charity Feed the Children is lobbying to stop the Farm Bill currently under consideration by Congress because it would cut billions from SNAP (food stamps).

The Tulsa World reported on homeless foster care kids in Tulsa who have fallen through gaps in the safety net. Julie Delcour writes about the “Ban the Box” movement to prevent employers from discriminating against workers with criminal records. Joining “ban the box” was one of the policy recommendations in OK Policy’s proposed action items for criminal justice reform. The Executive Director of the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition and the Oklahoma County district attorney wrote in NewsOK that Oklahoma’s high rate of female incarceration is caused by our state’s lack of support for abused of girls and women. Janet Pearson writes that the Oklahoma Legislature is continuing an assault on women’s health care.

The Number of the Day is the amount of wealth per household lost to foreclosure in communities of color in Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, Wonkblog explains why throwing children in prison makes them less likely to finish high school and more likely to commit crimes as adults.

continue reading In The Know: Fallin asks feds to support Insure Oklahoma program without changes

The day has been a red-letter day for the people of Arizona.  It was a win, win, win all the way around.

-Republic Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer, on the state’s approval of the Medicaid expansion after a lengthy legislative fight (Source: http://bit.ly/13KTP2R)

In this TED Talk, economic development expert Tim Bartik talks about why high quality early childhood education raises incomes, even for those who didn’t attend preschool.

Watch This Too:

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In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that the cost of damages from recent Oklahoma tornadoes has been estimated at $5 billion, of which only half is estimated as insured. Scientific American shared a satellite image showing the Moore tornado’s path of destruction. Restaurants were ordered closed, a hospital moved its patients to other facilities, an emergency was declared and 100,000 residents faced a boil advisory after a water main break in Broken Arrow.

A new Oklahoma Policy Institute fact sheet explains that, despite a much-heralded law passed in 2012, Oklahoma has not implemented any real criminal justice reform. Gov. Fallin signed a bill into law that criminalizes driving with any detectable amount of marijuana in a person’s system.  THC can remain detectable in blood tests for days after its use — long after any behavioral effects have worn off. OKC.net discussed how Oklahoma has the highest per capita number of executions in the nation since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

New Census numbers show that growth of Oklahoma’s Hispanic and Asian populations continues to far outpace growth of non-Hispanic whites. David Blatt’s Journal Record column explains why closing the wealth and opportunity gap for people of color in Oklahoma is central to our state’s future prosperity. The state Board of Education the creation of boot camps to get more special education teachers into Oklahoma classrooms amid a severe shortage statewide. Oklahoma higher education officials are seeking greater collaboration between universities and industry employers.

An Oklahoma court said a ruling that invalidates the state’s exemption of capital gains taxes for Oklahoma-based companies is limited to the 2008 tax return of the company that filed the appeal. Norman sales tax collections continue to fall below budget predictions, and the city’s Finance Director said growth in untaxed online shopping by the college population is a major cause. The Number of the Day is the percentage of families in poverty receiving ‘welfare’ cash assistance in Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, health researcher Dr. Aaron Carroll points out that the arguments used today by opponents of expanding Medicaid are the same as those made when Medicaid was first created in the 1960s, and the critics’ predictions of doom didn’t come true.

continue reading In The Know: Tornado damage costs still climbing

Yesterday, the Tulsa World reported that Oklahoma judges are not implementing a key provision of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative that sought to reform Oklahoma’s criminal justice system. The JRI law approved by lawmakers in 2012 mandates post-release supervision for felony offenders after incarceration, but since it went into effect, that requirement has been placed on only 9 out of 1,621 eligible offenders.

Unfortunately, the news is just the latest of many examples where Oklahoma is not implementing the new law. A new fact sheet from Oklahoma Policy Institute makes clear that the law continues to face numerous roadblocks that prevent it from having any impact of the state’s high levels of costly incarceration.

The fact sheet shows that implementation of several provisions of the law have been weak to nonexistent. It also explains how the Justice Reinvestment Initiative did nothing to address the central drivers of Oklahoma’s high incarceration rates: unusually long sentences and a lack of alternatives to incarceration for low-risk offenders.

You can see the fact sheet on our website or download it as a pdf.

For recommendations on what Oklahoma can do to achieve real criminal justice reform, see OK Policy’s “Action Items for Criminal Justice” report.

It’s a person. It could be your mom, your dad. Imagine going to the hospital and feeling they are treating you differently once the moment you say you don’t have insurance or you don’t have a Social Security number.

-Oklahoma City resident Deisy Escalera, whose father is struggling to afford dialysis treatments for kidney failure without insurance, because his undocumented immigrant status bars him from federal aid (Source: http://bit.ly/14wzKje)