State ballot measures seek to reduce prison population

The penalty for simple drug possession would be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor in Oklahoma under a state question on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The goal is to reduce the state’s huge prison population, saving money that would be invested in mental health and drug abuse treatment programs under a separate ballot measure.

Some prosecutors say this is all a step too far. They contend some powerful drugs warrant more than a misdemeanor. They also question whether offenders will participate in drug treatment without the threat of a felony charge.

For Kris Steele, former speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the proposals are straightforward and badly needed.

Oklahoma leads the nation in its incarceration rate for women, and has one of the highest rates for men. The state’s prison population is overflowing dilapidated facilities and drains state finances at a time of growing consensus that more money needs to be spent on drug and mental health treatment.

The experience in other states, including Texas, has been that pairing sentencing reform with increased access to counseling and treatment can reduce the inmate population and cut the crime rate.

“The research is very clear,” Steele said. “Addiction is a chronic condition that will progressively get worse if untreated.

“If we can connect people with treatment sooner rather than later, the likelihood of turning their lives around increases and fewer crimes are committed moving forward. This is about addressing the root cause.

“This is a matter of making the best use of state resources. It costs $17,500 to incarcerate a person for a year as opposed to $6,000 for treatment and supervision in the community. Incarceration makes a bad situation worse. By tagging a person with a felony conviction, this becomes a scarlet letter, prohibiting a person from participating in the community, from gaining meaningful employment, from finding stable housing.”

Concerns

Many district attorneys agree that more access to mental health and drug treatment is needed, but take issue with the idea of reducing all drug possessions to misdemeanors, which carry a possible sentence of one year in jail. Drug distribution would remain a felony.

Jason Hicks, district attorney for Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and Stephens counties, is a proponent of drug court, which gives offenders the option of treatment instead of incarceration.

His concern is that a drug offender would have a diminished incentive to opt for treatment if the alternative was not a long prison term.

“I could give you examples out of Stephens County where a person has gone to drug court and is clean today,” Hicks said.

“They would have never entered drug court if they weren’t staring down the barrel of 15- to 20-year sentence.”

Legislation

In this year’s legislative session, a bill was passed to give prosecutors discretion to file charges for many nonviolent crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies. Another measure that was approved reduces the minimum mandatory punishment for drug offenders charged only with possession.

“I would like to see how those play out before we jump into a situation where all drug possession charges become a misdemeanor instead of a felony,” Hicks said.

He said district attorneys understand the problem of addiction and try to get people help under the current system.

“We generally don’t see people on simple possession cases go to prison,” he said.

Hicks also said that some drugs, like heroin, are much more dangerous than others and that it doesn’t make sense to use a broad brush and make all simple possession cases, including repeat offenses, a misdemeanor.

The state question concerning drug possession also would raise the threshold for property crimes to be charged as a felony to $1,000.

Legislation to do this was also approved this year, but the state question would expand the list of property crimes that would be covered. ABOUT THE MEASURES

•State Question 780 would reclassify certain low-level offenses, such as drug possession and some property crimes, as misdemeanors instead of felonies.

•State Question 781 would create an account with the money saved from having fewer offenders incarcerated. Those funds would be used to operate programs that treat drug addiction and mental health issues.

•How they got on the ballot: A citizens’ initiative drive that collected more than 100,000 voter signatures for each of the two state questions.

•Argument in favor: Proponents say the two state questions provide needed criminal justice reform that could help reduce prison populations, provide more mental health and substance abuse treatment and ultimately improve crime rates at a time when there is growing evidence that it is more effective to spend money on treatment rather than incarceration.

•Argument against: Opponents say this is a step too far, that sentencing reforms approved this year need time to play out, that it doesn’t make sense to handle all possession crimes as misdemeanors since some drugs are more harmful than others and that without the threat of a felony, some offenders might not choose treatment.