Quotes of the Day

Reducing the state’s uninsured rate increases productivity and tax revenue; it improves public health, makes rural hospitals more financially viable and makes urban hospitals more efficient. Everyone has a stake in improving this situation.

-Tulsa World Editorial Board, on the importance of addressing Oklahoma’s high uninsured rate [Tulsa World]

“Last year’s flu season numbers were dangerously high. We hope to spread the message about the serious importance of getting vaccinated to protect you and your loved ones.”

Dr. Bruce Dart, executive director of the Tulsa Health Department, which is offering free flu shots at several locations in Tulsa County [KWGS]

“DHS’ own records present, with an overwhelming and compounding amount of detail, the unacceptably high level of risk and unsafe conditions created by placing together in one facility so many children with significant and complex needs and behaviors without ensuring an appropriate level of staff, training and organizational and programmatic management and oversight.”

-Court-ordered monitors of Oklahoma’s child welfare system discussing their order to close the state’s only remaining child shelter, which discharged its last resident in June [Tulsa World]

“While most women admitted to jails are accused of minor crimes, the consequences of pretrial incarceration can be devastating. This report finds that jailed mothers often feel an added, and unique, pressure to plead guilty so that they can return home to parent their children and resume their lives. These mothers face difficulties keeping in touch with their children due to restrictive jail visitation policies and costly telephone and video calls. Some risk losing custody of their children because they are not informed of, or transported to, key custody proceedings. Once released from jail, they are met with extensive fines, fees, and costs that can impede getting back on their feet and regaining custody of their children.”

– Human Rights Watch report on the lasting harm of jailing mothers before trial in Oklahoma [HRW]

“We are a poor state and we are a state with rich resources. But we have not provided the right combination of opportunity and investment to have healthy communities, strong families and well educated kids. We want kids to have a competitive edge but it is only going to happen with resources.”

-State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister [Stillwater News Press]

“What Chief Citty and the city council have done today is said, it’s time to really think about our marijuana policy and move into the future that the country is moving toward. This is the path of least resistance at this point. The people of Oklahoma and their adoption of State Question 780 and their most recent adoption of State Question 788 have said over and over again, listen…we want reform.”

-Allie Shinn, Deputy Director of the ACLU, speaking about the Oklahoma City Council’s vote to reduce the penalty for marijuana possession to a maximum $400 fine and to stop booking people into jail for marijuana possession [KFOR]

“We really expect to get more calls and see more people come through our doors. If only one person in Tulsa sees this and comes to us or calls our crisis line, it will be worth 1,000 times the effort that we put into this.”

-Donna Mathews, chief operating officer of Domestic Violence Intervention Services, who said more women have been reaching out to DVIS in recent weeks, encouraged by support being shown to Christine Blasey Ford. [Tulsa World]

“The system is set up for efficiency, to process as many cases as quickly as possible. It’s not a fair fight in court, so landlords just keep winning, and that’s how we end up in this situation.”

-Eric Hallett, an attorney for Legal Aid Services, discussing some of the reasons why Tulsa has the 11th highest eviction rate in the country [Tulsa World]

“It is shameful what is going on. For some reason, I guess, everybody thinks we are supposed to have a magic wand in the closet somewhere and grow that tree that grows money. I haven’t figured it out yet.”

-Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh, speaking about the overcrowding and deteriorating facilities in Oklahoma prisons. The Board of Corrections has begun the process of selling up to $116.5 million in bonds to expand prison capacity. [Tulsa World]

“With the exception of the Native Americans, everybody that lives here in the Tulsa community, either themselves or their ancestors, came to the United States and were immigrants. What I am asking them (Tulsans) to think about is, how would you have wanted your ancestors to be treated in whatever city they landed in?”

-Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, speaking about his administration’s New Tulsans Welcoming Plan to help improve immigrants’ lives in civic engagement, economic development, education, health and public safety [Tulsa World]