OKPOLICY.ORG
Oklahoma’s decades-long disinvestment in shared public services has worsened child well-being in the state, which in turn has made it harder for youth facing legal challenges to receive prevention and intervention services that meet all of their and their caregivers’ needs, according to a new report by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. Further, the report finds worsening overrepresentation of Black youth in the legal system. When taken in combination, these findings require action from youth justice stakeholders and lawmakers to implement evidence-based practices and policies that are proven to reduce racial and ethnic disparities.
The new report — “Reimagining Youth Justice in Oklahoma” — provides an overview of Oklahoma’s youth justice system, detailing the environment that youth in Oklahoma face, synthesizing data and reporting findings on the state of the youth justice system today, and offering recommendations for reform to create impactful and transformative change for youth.
The report was written by OK Policy’s Youth Justice Policy Analyst Jill Mencke and Data Analyst Polina Rozhkova, with a foreword by Restorative Justice Institute of Oklahoma (RJIOK) Executive Director Xavier Graves. The report was made possible through a grant from the Public Welfare Foundation and data provided by the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs.
The report also reflects OK Policy’s leadership and collaboration with the Justice for Oklahoma Youth (JOY) Coalition, which seeks to create a more equitable and restorative justice system for Oklahoma youth by promoting access to preventative programming, supportive community supervision, and alternatives to incarceration that improve life outcomes, community health, and public safety.
The report’s recommendations include:
- Funding and implementing new approaches to diversion programs while strengthening existing supports for youth.
- Creating guidelines for when diversion should be used.
- Removing developmentally inappropriate aspects of the adult criminal justice system from the youth justice system. This includes establishing a minimum age of criminal responsibility, banning the use of juvenile life without parole, and eliminating youth fines and fees.
- Strengthening advocacy efforts by uplifting leadership by youth who have lived experiences.
- Increasing transparency and accountability.
- Strengthening investments and supports for Oklahoma youth and families.
“The success of Oklahoma youth depends on robust investments in core public services, such as public schools, transportation, health care, and mental health systems. When you look at Oklahoma’s worsening rankings for child well-being, it demonstrates Oklahoma lawmakers have not funded investment into our youth as a state priority,” Mencke said. “When this lack of resources is combined with the state’s tendency toward punishment and over-incarceration in the criminal legal system, Oklahoma children and their families have fewer resources to manage the growing challenges they face as a result.”
The “Reimagining Youth Justice in Oklahoma” report draws from de-identified data provided by the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs (OJA) covering 2018 to 2023. The data offered detailed information on referrals, adjudicated offenses, and the final status of referrals within Oklahoma’s youth justice system.
During this period, the data show that Hispanic, Latino, and American Indian youth have seen a decrease in their relative rate of legal system involvement. However, Black youth were disproportionately likely to face additional challenges as they moved through the legal system process. The worsening disparities for Black youth point to systemic bias at many decision points in the youth justice system, from referral to post-adjudication custody. The report points to numerous existing studies that show even minor involvement in the justice system as a youth can have lifelong consequences, often damaging one’s health, negatively impacting one’s success in education and employment, and access to affordable, safe housing.
This creates more challenges for Black youth, who were nearly three times as likely to be referred to youth justice system involvement as white youth, and almost seven times as likely to be placed under OJA custody in 2023. These disparities underscore the need to formalize rules around when pre-arrest and court diversion is utilized for youth, and to create more opportunities and options in services that meet young people’s needs.
The report notes that the overrepresentation of Black youth in formal court processing and custody likely results from systemic and structural racism. To address this, Oklahoma needs to create guidelines for when youth are diverted from the youth justice system while also strengthening investments in preventative and pre-adjudication services that keep youth out of the court system and at home in their communities.
The report calls for Oklahoma to create investment opportunities that embrace new strategies and practices, like restorative justice and community violence intervention, to truly transform the legal system for youth who experience harm from it. Aggregate data should also be made more readily available to the public to better inform advocacy and research on the youth justice system in Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, stakeholders and advocates can take action by creating opportunities for youth to have a seat at the table in shaping policy that affects them and their peers. The Justice for Oklahoma Youth (JOY) Coalition has taken steps to put this effort into action by holding listening circles to hear about youth’s needs. Still, there needs to be a continuous and ongoing conversation to truly create meaningful and long-lasting change for youth, such as establishing a minimum age for legal responsibility, eliminating fines and fees, and removing the possibility of life without parole for youth.
To read the full report along with additional resources, visit okpolicy.org/ReimaginingYouthJustice
