Justice reform group seeks cut to incarceration rates

Activists also push for greater transparency

Two days after Gov. Mary Fallin and Oklahoma legislators announced an agreement with prosecutors to pass criminal justice reforms on hold since last year, an advocacy group gathered at the State Capitol Wednesday to reiterate their demand for a cut to the incarceration rate and denounce what they said has been an opaque process driven by the powerful district attorneys.

“We are endorsing the reforms as they were produced last session,” said Kris Steele, chairman of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, and a former Republican speaker of the Oklahoma House. “The truth of the matter is, we don’t know what language is in the current form of these bills ... we wish that there was more transparency in that process.”

On Monday, Fallin said the bills would be modified from their current versions, and the group of legislators have reached a conceptual agreement on how the amended bills would look. However, final

language of the bills was not available Monday.

As reported in The Oklahoman, the agreement includes five bills that were blocked from final passage last year and another measure that never received a hearing.

House Bill 2281 would create a new, tiered structure for property crimes based on the value of the goods, with lower values receiving lesser punishments.

House Bill 2286 streamlines the administrative parole process, and adds to the state’s guidelines for paroling elderly and infirm inmates.

Senate Bill 786 creates burglary in the third degree, which would apply to vehicle theft. It would also remove the mandatory minimum sentence for seconddegree burglary.

A sixth bill that will be introduced in the package is based on House Bill 2293, which failed to even get a hearing last session. That bill would have enacted penalties on drug possession based on weight of the drug.

The lawmakers suggested that the spirit of last year’s bills remains, while details such as ranges of punishment, enhancements and the parole process will be worked out.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said the bills are good for Oklahoma, and

“it will not negatively affect public safety.”

That wasn’t good enough for Steele and those gathered Wednesday at the Capitol.

Steele said the process wouldn’t be “as closed or as guarded” if there weren’t reasons to be concerned, and suggested district attorneys have the wrong priorities.

“I think they’re a lot more concerned about resources that may be used to help finance their offices,” Steele said.

Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform warned that Oklahoma is on the verge of becoming the state with the highest incarceration rates in the country. The state’s prisons are operating at 113 percent capacity, according to the Department of Corrections.

The group presented an analysis of the Oklahoma prison system, conducted by FWD.us, a nonprofit advocacy group created by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

In fiscal 2017, Oklahoma sent 91 percent more women to prison per capita than the national average, and held people in prison 80 percent longer for drug and property crimes, according to FWD.us.

“As of December 2017, over 6,000 people are sitting in prison for nonviolent crimes who are past their parole eligibility date,” said Felicity Rose, chief of research for criminal justice reform at FWD.us. “Last year, the Parole Board released 325 people.”

The reform advocacy group, which is made up of community and law enforcement leaders, clergy, health professionals and elected officials, calls for “evidencebased” criminal justice reform policies that save taxpayer dollars, safely reduce incarceration and reinvest savings in alternatives and treatment.

Those calling for criminal justice reform have warned that Oklahoma’s prison population could grow 25 percent over the next decade, costing taxpayers $2 billion to build new prisons.

“You want your tax dollars to be spent prudently, and we clearly are not doing that as a state,” said Larry Nichols, chairman emeritus of Devon Energy Corp.

Steele was flanked by women in the Tulsabased Women in Recovery program, which keeps women out of prison and helps them transition into society. It’s one of many programs Steele and others tout as strong alternatives to incarceration.

Kandice Nowak graduated the program and works as a peer support specialist at Family and Children’s Services in Tulsa. Nowak is married with a son, and recently became a homeowner.

“The program taught me how to live life as a healthy, productive member of society, and again, hold myself accountable ... ,” she said. “I hope more people can have the same hand up I received through similar programs.”