OKPOLICY.ORG
The House County and Municipal Government Committee, chaired by Rep. Eddy Dempsey, R-Valliant, heard an interim study last week sponsored by Rep. Danny Williams, R-Seminole, and Rep. Nicole Miller, R-Edmond, that reviews criminal justice funding and outcomes resulting from the 2016 passage of State Question 780 and SQ 781. [The interim study can be watched here; read the recent report about SQ 780 and 781 here.]
The presentation was both inspirational and disturbing: Inspirational because it demonstrated the state has some well qualified people who understand the causes of criminal conduct and who are working hard to impact the issue. Disturbing because we still rely so heavily on incarceration with a scarcity of the policies and programs that work to make an impact on public safety and on people’s lives. Excessive incarceration simply exacerbates rather than improving the crime problem.
The committee heard from Michael Olson, Policy Director of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, that the negative consequences of the criminal justice system, whether economic, social, or psychological, are concentrated within a relatively small segment of the population. Factors such as economic attainment, education level, age, gender, and race all play a significant role in shaping an individual’s likelihood of incarceration, with systemic disparities reinforcing cycles of disadvantage. (His presentation can be found here, and citations are from this unless otherwise noted.)
According to Olson, “disadvantage” refers to the clustering of poverty, unemployment, low education, and other signs of economic hardship within a specific area or neighborhood. In the first full year after release, about 49 percent of ex-prisoners earn less than $500 — as reported on a W2 or tax return. Approximately 10 percent of children with incarcerated parents do not complete high school or pursue higher education — a rate nearly twice the national high school dropout average of 5.4 percent. Frequently, these individuals leave school prematurely to enter the workforce to compensate for the loss of parental income.
In a point-in-time 2023 survey in Tulsa, 56 percent of the respondents experiencing homelessness mentioned a personal history of incarceration. A study by Cody Warner published in the Journals of the American Sociological Association in 2016 found the likelihood a respondent will leave a non-poor area for a poor area is nearly quadrupled if that respondent has a history of incarceration.
A study of more than 150 American cities found “the strongest indicator of violent crime rates across cities was concentrated disadvantage.” (McGarrel, 2010). The effect of disadvantage on homicide is somewhat mitigated when poverty is less spatially concentrated. (Hannon, 2023). Studies show that relative economic deprivation, or how much more disadvantaged one neighborhood is compared to those close by, is a robust predictor of property crime. (Chamberlain, 2015).
In Phoenix, researchers found “a direct effect of foreclosures on intimate partner violence.” (Wallace, 2021). One study found alcohol use disorder accounted for approximately 4.6 percent to 9.3 percent of reported violent offenses. (Boden, 2012). A meta-analysis of medical examiner studies estimated 32 percent of homicide victims were intoxicated when they were killed. (Smith, 1999). Researchers find “a significant linear relationship between criminal activity and frequency of drug use,” meaning more frequent drug use creates more criminal activity. (French, 2000).
The bottom line for all this is poor educational attainment, housing instability, lack of earning skills, untreated drug and alcohol abuse, racial and gender discrimination — especially aggravated in Oklahoma by the over-representation of minority and female incarceration — contribute to over-incarceration, which then creates a cycle that becomes generational.
The committee heard from several inspirational programs working with those caught up in the cycle of incarceration and their families. But the common theme of those doing that good work was the lack and instability of adequate funding. Hopefully enough afternoons spent in studies like this will translate into legislative policies and funding. Too often the studies seem far removed from the votes taken at the end of the legislative session each year.
