Topic: Justice System

Every sentence is a life sentence: 3 barriers to life after prison

By: Gene Perry
January 21, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Criminal justice reform is in the air for the upcoming legislative session. For more than a decade, experts and advocates have warned of a mounting incarceration crisis that has created huge costs for taxpayers while, perversely, possibly increasing crime. For… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma has already created a great model for criminal justice reform

By: Carly Putnam
January 15, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Oklahoma is badly in need of criminal justice system overhaul. The state regularly tops the charts for incarceration – and a lot of that is because of drug offenses. One in three people… Read more [More...]

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

By: Guest
December 22, 2014 // Updated: May 2, 2019
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...]

Stars could be aligning for criminal justice reform in Oklahoma

By: Steve Lewis
December 5, 2014 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

Exonerating the wrongly-convicted should be a shared priority (Guest Post: Lawrence Hellman)

By: Guest
October 23, 2014 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Lawrence K. Hellman is Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law at Oklahoma City University School of Law. He serves as executive director of The Oklahoma Innocence Project. It is no longer contestable: innocent people sometimes get convicted of serious crimes.… Read more [More...]

Juvenile justice, child welfare, suicide get attention (Steve Lewis Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
October 17, 2014 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

Don’t let fear make us dumb

By: Gene Perry
October 6, 2014 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Recently a terrible crime has made the headlines in Oklahoma. Shortly after being fired from a food processing plant in Moore, Alton Nolen attacked two of his co-workers with a knife, beheading one and seriously injuring another. The details of… Read more [More...]

Indiscriminate DNA testing could put innocent Oklahomans in prison

By: Gene Perry
September 22, 2014 // Updated: May 2, 2019
For several years, Rep. Lee Denney (R-Cushing) has proposed legislation to require taking DNA samples from everyone who has been arrested in Oklahoma (more recent attempts scaled it back to those arrested and held over for trial). These samples would… Read more [More...]

Domestic violence assessment could save lives (Steve Lewis Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
September 19, 2014 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

Has Governor Fallin turned a corner on criminal justice reform?

By: Gene Perry
September 15, 2014 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Two years ago, hopes were high that Oklahoma was finally taking a different approach to criminal justice, away from policies that had given us some of the highest levels of incarceration in the world without doing much to reduce crime… Read more [More...]