Doing shorter time?
Coalition leads state campaign to reduce sentences
A bipartisan coalition is campaigning to reduce the sentences for dozens of people serving time for crimes that no longer carry such severe punishments following criminal justice reform efforts in Oklahoma.
Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, a group of law enforcement, lawmakers and business and community leaders, is assisting with what the group considers to be “excessive and unjust sentences.” The coalition has partnered with students from the University of Tulsa College of Law for the so-called “commutation campaign.”
On Monday, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board will conduct the initial review of about two dozen cases.
A commutation changes a sentence to one that is less severe in order to correct an unjust or excessive sentence. It is not intended to serve as an early release mechanism.
Case reviews
The Tulsa law students, under the supervision of the Tulsa County Public Defender’s Office, spent the summer reviewing hundreds of cases, conducting more than 100 interviews to identify potential candidates for the campaign and then helping prepare commutation applications for those selected.
Those who would have received shorter sentences are serving a combined total of 736 years. Under recent law changes, the maximum those individuals could potentially serve would be 154 years, according to Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. An analysis done by the group found that the more lengthy sentences are costing the state $2.75 million in unnecessary spending.
“These individuals have sentences of 10 years or more for simple drug possession and offenses that have been reduced in current law by (State Questions) 780 and 781 and by the reforms enacted by the state legislature last session,” said Sarah Edwards, an Oklahoma City attorney who is a board member for Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. “... The main purpose of this campaign is to bring those sentences in line with the current sentences.”
In 2016, Oklahomans approved State Question 780, which reclassified certain low-level drug and property crimes as misdemeanors rather than felonies. However, the law, which took effect July 1, 2017, didn’t apply retroactively. Thus, many inmates remain in prison for crimes that would have brought a different punishment had they been committed after the law change. State legislators also passed a number of other criminal justice reforms earlier this year.
Excessive sentences
Applicants selected for the campaign include people serving long sentences for drug possession, which is now a misdemeanor, people serving long sentences for low-level possession with intent to distribute, which was affected by legislative reforms passed this year, and women serving time for failure to protect a child, whose cases were selected because the sentences they received were excessively longer than the sentences of the men who had abused the child.
All are serving 10 years or longer and have demonstrated
a readiness to re-enter society, those involved with the campaign said.
Colleen McCarty, a second-year law student, said the commutation campaign is a way to start a conversation about whether State Question 780 should become retroactive, to highlight some of the places the system is broken and to try to help people who may be forgotten.
Most people identified for the campaign have already served the time they would have received under State Question 780, McCarty said.
“I don’t know how we explain to those people sitting in prison that if somebody got caught now, they’d only get a year but you should be in prison for 15 years when you did the exact same thing,” she said.
Many of the candidates the campaign chose had accepted a plea deal that included completing drug court. If they completed it successfully, their sentence would be deferred or they would be put on probation, but if they didn’t complete drug court, they would serve the maximum prison sentence, McCarty said.
In many cases, the people have lengthy sentences because their prior record was used to enhance their sentences, McCarty said. Senate Bill 649, signed by Gov. Mary Fallin earlier this year along with other criminal justice reform bills, eliminated sentence enhancements for people convicted of drugrelated crimes and limited enhancements for repeat property crime offenses.
The commutation campaign also is a way to shine a spotlight on the will of the voters, McCarty said.
“The voters have spoken and said that we don’t want to criminalize addiction,” she said. “We want people to be rehabilitated. We want people to get better. We want people to re-enter the workforce. We don’t want to ruin their lives with ... extremely long sentences in prison.”
Commutation process
The five-member Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board meets monthly to make decisions and recommendations pertaining to pardons, paroles, commutations and clemencies.
Only the governor can grant a commutation in Oklahoma. Before an application is presented to the governor, at least three members of the Pardon and Parole Board must recommend a commutation.
The Board uses a twostep process for commutation review. During an
initial review and study of the application, the board determines whether the applicant should advance to a second stage for further investigation and consideration.
During the second stage, the offender makes an appearance before the board via video. The offender’s family and friends are allowed to speak or submit letters on his or her behalf. Victims or their advocates, the district attorney, the arresting law enforcement agency and the judicial representative from the court in which the person was convicted are allowed to protest the application.
On Monday, more than 20 people who the Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform campaign has been assisting are scheduled for an initial review by the Pardon and Parole Board. The remainder will likely have their initial review in September.
It’s rare for someone to be granted commutation or even to advance to the second stage of consideration with the Pardon and Parole Board. During the 2018 fiscal year, the Pardon and Parole Board considered 477 commutations and only 19 advanced to stage two, said Justin Wolf, general counsel for the board. Of those, just 10 were given a favorable recommendation to the governor.Of those, six were approved, one was denied and three are under review, said Michael McNutt, communications director for the governor’s office.
Contradictory values
Sue Ann Arnall, founder and president of the Arnall Family Foundation, said all of the candidates who have been vetted for the commutation campaign have done something to better themselves.
Oklahomans look at the state as one that values family, but over incarcerating people is contradictory to those values, said Arnall, who is a board member of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. Many children who wind up in foster care are put there because their parents are in jail or prison, she said. Those children face tremendous trauma, Arnall said.
“We’re just learning how many people have been touched by incarceration,” she said. “... It’s obvious that we’re over-incarcerating. It’s pretty obvious, just by the numbers, by the damage, by the places we are in as a state, the rankings we have. Over incarceration is one of the big driving factors.”
Mike Brose, Mental Health Association Oklahoma’s chief empowerment officer, said people
in every state are waking up to the fact that it’s incredibly expensive to “warehouse” nonviolent offenders and it’s a lot less expensive to help people have an opportunity to address the issues that are tied to their violation of statute.
Brose said the commutation campaign isn’t a “get out of jail free card.” Everybody is invested in making sure that public safety is protected, he said.
“Public safety is paramount, but there’s a lot of individuals that are not violent in nature at all,” Brose said. “... They have issues to work on. They need treatment, mental health treatment. They need substance abuse treatment and housing and employment opportunities so they can thrive and be taxpayers, take care of their families and be self-sustaining and contribute to the overall betterment of the economy.”