By:
David Gateley
February 22, 2023 // Updated: February 22, 2023
Over the last six years, Oklahoma has seen a marked reduction in the number of people going to prison, with the largest reductions coming from drug convictions thanks to recent voter-approved justice reform efforts. However, there’s more lawmakers can do.…
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There remains much work ahead as Oklahoma still incarcerates more people than almost anywhere in the world. As such, lawmakers missed opportunities to help curb the state’s ongoing incarceration crisis or make much-needed investments in county-level mental health and substance abuse services.
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The state should continue reducing the number of people incarcerated in Oklahoma across the board by extending the early pandemic efforts, like expanding commutations and making permanent efforts that reduce arrests for certain non-violent offenses. These efforts are not only good for Oklahomans and public safety, but they serve the needs of public health as well.
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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.
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Though the Legislature has again failed to fund the treatments that SQ 781 statutorily required, we know that justice reform has measurably reduced the prison population and that mental health remains severely underfunded.
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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.
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Each year, thousands of Oklahomans face driver’s license suspension for failure to pay court fines and fees. As OK Policy has reported previously, tens of thousands of failure to pay arrest warrants are issued each year to the poorest Oklahomans.
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Though much remains to be done, the Oklahoma Policy Institute has been tracking the effects of justice reform in courts, jails, and prisons as reforms have taken hold and found a steady move towards a less punitive approach to offenses like drug possession and burglary.
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As Oklahomans prepare to vote on State Question 805 during the Nov. 3 general election, opponents have started attacking the justice reform measure in predictable ways, attempting to stir up fear through false and misleading claims. Opponents of SQ 805…
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State Question 805 would amend the Oklahoma Constitution to end the use of sentence enhancements for people convicted of nonviolent crimes
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