Topic: Criminal Justice Disparities

2019 Priority: Add racial impact statements on criminal justice legislation to reduce disparities in the justice system

Download this fact sheet as a printable pdf here. Read about the rest of OK Policy’s 2019 Legislative Policy Priorities here. Communities of color are disproportionately affected by incarceration in Oklahoma. One in every 15 adult Black men in Oklahoma… Read more [More...]

Millions of dollars in court debt hang over residents of Oklahoma’s poorest neighborhoods

Earlier this year, we released a report detailing the growth of fees attached to criminal court cases in Oklahoma. We found that as legislators attempt to prop up falling state revenues, fees have risen for every type of crime. When… Read more [More...]

Lawmakers must confront racial disparities head-on as they reform the justice system

The need for criminal justice reform is well illustrated by outrageous top-level statistics showing Oklahoma’s imprisonment rate among the highest in the nation (about 700 in prison per 100,000 residents), and a need to bring down spending on corrections (nearly half… Read more [More...]

We must move from angst to action in the wake of Brown and Garner deaths (Guest post: Hannibal B. Johnson)

Hannibal B. Johnson is a Harvard Law School graduate who teaches at Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma. His several books include Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District, Black Wall Street, Up from the Ashes, and Acres of Aspiration. A… Read more [More...]

No Exit: The School-to-Prison pipeline (Neglected Oklahoma)

Camille Landry is a writer, activist, and social justice advocate who lives in Oklahoma City.  This post is part of our “Neglected Oklahoma” series, which tells the stories of Oklahomans in situations where the basic necessities of life are hard… Read more [More...]

Racial disparities in the war on marijuana: intent versus impact

This post was written by OK Policy intern Carly Putnam. Carly is an undergraduate at the University of Tulsa majoring in Sociology and Women’s & Gender Studies. She can be found on Twitter at @CarlyPutnam. A recent ACLU report revealed… Read more [More...]