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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By:
Damion Shade
December 9, 2020 // Updated: December 10, 2020
While much of this conversation has been focused on municipal budgets and inadequate funding for mental health and social services, it’s also critical that lawmakers consider how the system of court fines and fees contributes to racial disparities in both policing and incarceration.
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By:
Damion Shade
September 19, 2020 // Updated: September 22, 2020
Numerous prisons in this state are battling growing outbreaks, but Oklahoma’s policymakers still have time to act.
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The justice system will continue to be unfair to people of color unless lawmakers take deliberate steps to fix it. Closing the gap in these disparities for youth is necessary for long-term justice reform in our state.
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By:
Ryan Gentzler
September 11, 2019 // Updated: October 12, 2019
Despite these promising developments, black and brown youth are still disproportionately represented in Oklahoma’s juvenile justice system.
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By:
Damion Shade
February 20, 2019 // Updated: March 29, 2019
This legislative session, leaders of both parties, the governor, the Oklahoma business community and the public at large have expressed a clear desire to work towards ending Oklahoma’s incarceration crisis. Some of these legislative initiatives build on the progress of Gov. Fallin’s Criminal Justice Task Force, but many proposals represent new attempts to lower Oklahoma’s highest-in-the-world incarceration rate.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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