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Mitigation efforts helped keep our justice-involved youth safer during the pandemic

Justice-involved youth have faced a heightened risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Youthful offenders, already likely burdened with childhood trauma and the stress of separation from family, faced considerable risks living in shared facilities with other youths during a highly infectious global pandemic. [More...]

SB 1337 would provide managed care provisions for state Medicaid (Capitol Update)

Note: Capitol Update is a guest column from former Oklahoma House Speaker Steve Lewis’ weekly newsletter focused on major events occurring in the state capitol. — Senate Bill 1337 by Sen. Greg McCortney, R-Ada, and Rep. Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan, was… Read more [More...]

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in services to vulnerable communities, particularly immigrants

Immigrants have had to bear the pandemic without much federal aid due to complicated rules around eligibility for public benefit programs, limited access to health care, economic limitations, and a variety of other factors. At the state level, Oklahoma did comparatively little to support immigrants as well. [More...]

Better Tomorrows Youth Justice Panel Discussion

On March 28, the Oklahoma Policy Institute released its latest report, which focuses on the state's youth justice system. To celebrate the report's release, OK Policy held an online panel discussion to look more deeply at issues impacting the state's youth justice system and the issues raised in the report. [More...]

Better Tomorrows: A Landscape Analysis of Oklahoma’s Youth Justice System and Suggested Reforms

Better Tomorrows: A Landscape Analysis of Oklahoma’s Youth Justice System and Suggested Reforms reviews the historical context for Oklahoma’s youth justice system, examines contemporary processes and actors within the system, and recommends a series of reforms that can help achieve better outcomes for justice-involved children and their families. [More...]

New report examines Oklahoma’s youth justice system, proposes reforms 

A new report from the Oklahoma Policy Institute shows that issues with Oklahoma’s youth justice system mirror problems seen in its adult justice system, most notably that children of color are overrepresented and the state’s overreliance on fines and fees to fund core operations damages families and communities.  [More...]

[Weekly Wonk] More equitable recovery for everyone | COVID-19 worsened child care access | Youth justice panel discussion on Monday

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In… Read more [More...]

Smart investments are the key to an equitable economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession

While macroeconomic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (the size of an economy) and the unemployment rate (the percentage of people who want work but can’t find it) are useful for measuring the overall health of an economy, they conceal inequalities and long-standing structural challenges that hurt many Oklahomans' ability to provide for themselves and participate in our economy.  [More...]

Chamber of origin deadline brings heavy workload this week (Capitol Update)

Note: Capitol Update is a guest column from former Oklahoma House Speaker Steve Lewis’ weekly newsletter focused on major events occurring in the state capitol. — Last week was a short week for the legislature. Both the House and Senate… Read more [More...]

COVID-19 worsened an existing crisis for child care in Oklahoma

Due to underfunding, Oklahoma’s child care system for providers and families was in crisis long before the first COVID-19 case at a child care center was reported on March 18, 2020. [More...]

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