OKPOLICY.ORG
An overview of our work on Oklahoma’s Justice System
Oklahoma’s criminal justice system is in a crisis. Prisons have grown increasingly costly and overcrowded without any clear pay-off in public safety. OK Policy promotes a smart-on-crime mentality towards criminal justice — one that doesn’t pursue punishment for its own sake, but instead looks for what works to protect public safety in the most cost-effective way.
See all of our justice system research here.
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Areas of Focus
Bail & Pretrial ReleaseCriminal Justice ReformFines & FeesPrisons & JailsRacial DisparitiesReintegration
Justice System Facts
Featured Articles and Reports
Oklahoma’s parole process has helped safely lower the number of people in prison. Continued investments could build on this progress.
Oklahoma’s parole process — which allows conditional early release from prison — has played a key role in lowering the number of Oklahomans behind bars. The use of parole has reunited families, protected public safety, and saved the state hundreds of millions of dollars in incarceration costs. (Parole is contrasted with probation, which requires the 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...
The 2022 session brings rare opportunity for significant progress in our criminal justice system
Even after progress, Oklahoma still ranks third in overall incarceration, with more than 21,000 people in state custody and another 26,000 under some form of supervision. More...
The 2021 session saw passage of economic justice reforms, but Oklahoma’s prison crisis demands greater action
Criminal justice reform was a lower profile priority in Oklahoma’s 2021 legislative session compared to previous years. Despite this fact, several significant reforms aimed at increasing economic opportunity for justice-involved families were signed into law. More...
Rural Oklahomans frequently carry larger burden for court fines, fees
Our analysis suggests that rural Oklahomans are asked to pay just as much, and often more, than their urban counterparts. More worrisome still, urban areas like Tulsa and Oklahoma counties have the most difficulty in collecting fines and fees, meaning rural Oklahomans are effectively contributing more of their money to fund the court system as compared to their urban counterparts. More...
Reducing Oklahoma’s court fines and fees is police reform
While much of this conversation has been focused on municipal budgets and inadequate funding for mental health and social services, it’s also critical that lawmakers consider how the system of court fines and fees contributes to racial disparities in both policing and incarceration. More...
Oklahoma’s fines and fees system worsening the economic crisis for families and courts
Although Oklahoma courts suspended most of their activities back in March, they have continued to collect fines and fees. So far this year, about $33.7 million in court debt has been collected from felony and misdemeanor cases alone, compared to about $40 million collected by this time last year. More...
Strategies for Building Trust Between Law Enforcement and Communities in Oklahoma: Executive Summary
[Download the full report as a pdf.] [Download a summary table of reform proposals.] Contents Introduction Problem Overview Reform Proposals Case Studies Conclusion Executive Summary Law enforcement officers in Oklahoma face a challenging environment. Recent reports place the state near the top for both rates of people killed by police and police officers killed in More...
The Cost Trap: How Excessive Fees Lock Oklahomans Into the Criminal Justice System without Boosting State Revenue: Executive Summary
Tens of thousands of Oklahomans enter the justice system each year and come out with thousands of dollars in legal financial obligations. For poor Oklahomans, this debt can amount to most of their family’s income, and it often leads to a cycle of incarceration and poverty. Read more... More...
Justice System Experts
