OKPOLICY.ORG
A new report shows how Oklahoma voters’ decision to prioritize rehabilitation over incarceration has resulted in a dramatic drop in crime, a 47 percent reduction in prison sentences, and the largest local mental health and substance abuse investment in state history.
The report — “Investing in Justice: The Promise and Progress of Oklahoma’s SQ 781 Community Safety Fund” — examines the potential of Oklahoma’s Community Safety Fund, created by State Question 781. The report provides a data-driven analysis of SQ 781’s impact and outlines a path forward to fulfill the vision voters approved in 2016.
Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR), in collaboration with Arnold Ventures, Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, the Oklahoma Policy Institute, and DataWorks, released the groundbreaking report on Aug. 8.
“Oklahomans overwhelmingly chose a more fair and effective path-this report shows that choice is saving money, saving lives, and making communities safer,” said Michael Olson, Policy Counsel for OCJR.
Anthony Flores, Research Director for OK Policy, said: “When Oklahoma voters passed SQ 780 and 781, they wanted to see the savings from less incarceration be used for investments in mental health and substance use treatments because they’ve seen the very need in their own communities. Implementation has been slow in part due to disagreements on how to calculate the savings, but those have mostly been resolved.”
Some Key Findings:
- $202.3 million saved from reduced incarceration
- $37.5 million invested into local mental health and substance use services across 44 counties
- 77 percent drop in drug-related prison admissions
- 32 percent decrease in property crime in metro areas
Passed in 2016, SQ 780 reclassified low-level drug and property offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. Its companion, SQ 781, mandated that savings from incarceration reductions be redirected into the Community Safety Investment Fund. However, lawmakers delayed implementation until 2023, when SB 844 finally triggered the fund’s distribution.
Now, counties are hiring staff, expanding treatment courts, launching reentry programs, and delivering housing support-at a cost of just $1,424 per person, compared to the $19,000 average cost of incarceration. However, only 44 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties have applied for funding so far — leaving millions in potential public safety investment on the table and large portions of the state without access to transformative services.
OK Policy’s research team, in concert with the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT), produced the method to calculate the savings from SQ 780. (The report also links to the full technical report for transparency). OK Policy Senior Data Engineer and Architect Brancen Gregory provided the data analysis for the report, which found the savings are around $25 million a year.
Yet, the state’s investment is only half that, Flores said.
“This is a difficult problem that requires our collective effort to solve,” he said. “OK Policy continues to encourage and be a part of further partnership between the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS), county governments, the legislature, local service providers, other experts, and the Oklahomans using these programs. Working together we can ensure all communities in Oklahoma, especially in our rural areas, receive the full investment voted for in SQ 781.”
The report concludes with a summary of findings from Healthy Minds Policy Initiative that outlines how expanding community-based crisis response systems and treatment court programs can reduce unnecessary involvement in the criminal legal system for people experiencing behavioral health crises.
It found that Oklahoma could save an estimated $427 million annually in health care costs by moving away from a reliance on emergency rooms and jails toward more specialized responses like mobile crisis teams, urgent recovery centers, and short-term crisis beds. Additionally, expanding access to adult treatment courts for people with substance use disorders, mental illness, or co-occurring conditions could generate $87 million in net savings while reducing recidivism and promoting stability. (The full Healthy Minds report can be found on its website.)
