A step forward for criminal justice bills

SIX criminal justice reform bills will be considered this session at the Legislature, providing some encouraging news after months of frustration for those seeking change.

Many details remain to be worked out. But Gov. Mary Fallin, district attorneys, legislators and others joined Monday to announce an agreement had been reached to advance the bills.

It was a task force formed by Fallin that produced a dozen bills for consideration in 2017. Some of those made it through the gauntlet and to her desk. Several others, however, did not, despite being reworked to help address concerns raised by prosecutors. A former House committee chairman who was no fan of most criminal justice reform kept five bills sidetracked before sending them to a conference committee.

The reforms in the six bills to be considered this session focus on nonviolent offenders, who make up a sizeable chunk of an ever-growing prison population. The task force’s goal was to find ways to keep Oklahoma’s inmate census from growing in the next several years by as much 25 percent, as has been projected. The five bills are:

• House Bill 2281, which would create a tiered structure for property offenses based on the value of the goods.

• HB 2286, which would streamline administrative parole and create a more comprehensive aging and medical parole.

• Senate Bill 649, creating a new structure for enhancing sentences for second and subsequent offenses.

• SB 689, intended to modify drug trafficking sentences and improve supervision.

• SB 786, dealing with some burglary offenses, including lengths of sentences.

A sixth bill is to be based on a measure that didn’t get a hearing last year. That bill, HB 2293, would have used the weight of a drug to enact penalties for drug possession.

Sen. Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, the majority floor leader, called the announcement “huge.” The head of the Oklahoma District Attorney’s Association, is on board with the agreement, as are business groups such as The State Chamber and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber.

Kris Steele, who is head of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform and who has said prosecutors’ pushback led to last year’s bills being weakened, is taking a wait-and-see approach. “From what we’ve heard, this appears to be a proposal that grows the prison population, albeit by a lesser amount than other prosecutor proposals,” Steele said.

He has said that if the full task force plan were implemented, the prison population would be roughly 26,500 by 2026 (it’s about 27,200 today). Approval of the prosecutors’ original proposals, Steele said, would have the prison population at about 34,000 by 2026, 1,700 fewer than projected.

Weary of having the second-highest incarceration rate in the nation, and the highest rate for females, we have long advocated for changes that would significantly reduce the inmate population. Much more than these bills is needed, and work on this front must continue.

Yet Fallin may have said it best in calling the agreement “a huge first step forward.” A step forward, even a small one, certainly beats no steps at all.