Watch This: Packed Oklahoma prisons, rising costs

Oklahoma Watch has an excellent series on their Youtube channel examining incarceration in Oklahoma, with a particular emphasis on female incarceration.  The videos explore themes like overcrowding, substance abuse and domestic violence, and reentry after incarceration.  Oklahoma Watch is a… Read more [More...]

An interview with Amina Benalioulhaj, director of "Women Behind Bars" documentary

Women Behind Bars is a new documentary about female incarceration in Oklahoma by University of Oklahoma student Amina Benalioulhaj. The film premiered in a packed showing at the deadCENTER Film Festival earlier this month. A Tulsa screening will be held… Read more [More...]

What's been done and what still needs doing on corrections reform

Oklahoma leads the nation for percentage of incarcerated women and is near the top for incarcerated men. Our prisons are at more than 95 percent capacity with only 70 percent staffing, which creates a dangerous environment for both guards and… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Trevor Shanklin): Oklahoma, we need to talk about drugs

Trevor Shanklin is a summer intern at the Oklahoma Policy Institute. He is a decorated disabled veteran of the Oklahoma Army National Guard where he served as a Recruiting and Retention NCO and a Combat Medic with the 1/279 Infantry… Read more [More...]

Get a job: Why restricting employment for ex-felons is counterproductive

Last Wednesday, Chris Linder was sworn into office as mayor of Pawnee, but he may not be allowed to serve. In 2000, Linder was convicted of a felony in Arizona for his role in a drug deal and gun battle.… Read more [More...]

Andrea Baker: Women in Recovery has changed my life forever

Note: The following are the remarks of Andrea Baker delivered at the signing ceremony for HB 2131, the corrections reform bill authored by House Speaker Kris Steele and Sen. Patrick Anderson. For more on the Women in Recovery program, read… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Donna Coffey): Drug courts provide hope and make a difference

Donna Coffey is the McCurtain County Drug Court Administrator in Oklahoma.  She has been with the program since its implementation in June 2003, under the direction of District Judge Willard L. Driesel. Oklahoma Drug Courts – hope for a brighter… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Susan Sharp): Rethinking female incarceration

Dr. Susan F. Sharp is the L. J. Semrod Presidential Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma. She has conduced extensive research on the criminal justice system and is the author of numerous reports on female… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Amy Santee): Women in Recovery program making a difference

Amy Santee, the author of this guest blog, is Senior Program Officer with George Kaiser Family Foundation in Tulsa. In my last blog post, I posed the following question: “Is it not better public policy to provide these (incarcerated) women… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Amy Santee): Turning The Tide On Female Incarceration

From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This entry is from Amy Santee, Senior Program Officer with George Kaiser… Read more [More...]