OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An Oklahoma Senate panel approved several proposals Wednesday designed to ease the explosive growth in the state’s prison population, signaling potential willingness by the Republican-controlled Legislature to embrace a new approach to criminal justice reform.
The Senate Appropriations Committee overwhelmingly approved all of the measures, several of which are endorsed by Gov. Mary Fallin, who has long raised concerns about Oklahoma’s incarceration rate being one of the highest in the nation.
One of the bills would eliminate the current two-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for drug possession and reduce other drug possession penalties, which are among the strictest in the nation. About 7,300, or more than 26 percent, of Oklahoma offenders are in prison because of a drug crime, according to the Department of Corrections’ most recent annual report.
Another bill would increase the felony threshold for more than a dozen property crimes from $500 to $1,000, including such offenses as shoplifting, larceny, forgery and embezzlement. The limit for a bogus check to be considered a felony would be raised from $1,000 to $2,000.
Other measures would give more discretion to prosecutors to file charges as misdemeanors and more time for judges to consider modifying prison sentences.
“I definitely think that these are significant,” said Adam Luck, a member of the Board of Corrections that oversees Oklahoma’s prison system and an expert on criminal justice reforms. “I think that time will tell how much it impacts the growth of the prison population.”
Luck praised the Legislature for seeking new solutions to the problems associated with prisons, adding that the state’s business community also endorsed the proposals.
Oklahoma prisons are packed at more than 120 percent, and the cash-strapped Department of Corrections is trying to find space for an estimated 1,000 new prisoners that have entered the system over the last year.
Even as the prison population has grown, the number of DOC employees has declined in recent years, leaving Oklahoma with one of the lowest staff-to-inmate ratios in the country. Many of Oklahoma’s prisons are converted hospitals or mental facilities, and much of its infrastructure is crumbling and outdated.
“It’s dangerous,” Luck said. “I think that we’re definitely headed to a crisis point.”
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Online:
House Bill 2479: https://bit.ly/1R1Fp5H
House Bill 2751: https://bit.ly/1WcpOGT
House Bill 2472: https://bit.ly/208HvHr
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