In a tough on crime state once dubbed the “world’s prison capital,” 527 inmates walked out of Oklahoma prisons Monday in the largest single-day commutation in state and national history.
Their judicial sentences were commuted after Oklahoma voters passed State Question 780 in 2016 to reclassify simple drug possession as a misdemeanor and increase the felony dollar threshold from $500 to $1,000 for felony property crimes.
Although the voter-approved law affected future cases, the Republican-led Legislature, with the encouragement of first-year Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, made the law retroactive, paving the way for the record-breaking opportunity for a second chance.
Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole board considered 814 inmates’ cases during a special meeting on Nov. 1, the first day HB 1269 took effect. The length of the combined commuted sentences of the 527 eligible inmates was 1,931 years. Had these inmates served their full sentence, it could have cost Oklahoma taxpayers $11.9 million.
Of the inmates receiving a favorable recommendation, all had been incarcerated for at least the past three years, and the average sentence was shortened by 1.34 years. Their average age is just under forty years old.
An additional 60,000 former prisoners are now eligible to have their drug possession and felony property crime records expunged, removing a huge hurdle to finding meaningful employment and rejoining society.
Transformative criminal justice reform has been a hard sell in Oklahoma for years, with the state’s solution to almost any crime being incarceration. The result has been facilities overrun by minor criminals who can’t afford to pay the required fees and fines and provide for their families and who find it doubly difficult to rejoin society after many years in prison.
In 2018, Oklahoma’s prison admissions swelled to 10,777, its largest number ever as the state locked up a higher proportion of residents than any other state or country.
Lawmakers made sure the process of commuting each of these men and women was thorough and thoughtful. Each inmate had to have served a minimum one-year sentence. And the decisions were not automatic. State lawmakers directed the Pardon and Parole Board to establish an accelerated, single-stage commutation docket for only those people in prison for the crimes reclassified as misdemeanors by the people of Oklahoma.
Also, state district attorneys, victims, or the Oklahoma Department of Corrections could request a denial of individuals for whom they did not support allowing commutation. That’s one reason not all of the inmates that qualified had their sentences commuted. Additionally, no one was released who had any violations while in DOC custody or who had a violent offense charge.
The Pardon and Parole Board and the DOC worked for the last few months at corrections facilities across the state to ensure inmates would be better prepared for their early release. Resource fairs were held to provide networking opportunities with potential employers. Inmates were also connected to transition housing resources and sobriety assistance.
As expected in 2018, State Question 780 reduced the growing number of felony criminal charges (down 14,141, or 28.4%) and increased the number of misdemeanor filings (up 6,437, or 13.6%). Felonies dropped by more than 50 percent in some rural counties.
Oklahoma has committed itself to reducing mass incarceration and the related fiscal and social costs that go with it while giving its citizens a second chance.
Stephanie Bice is a state senator from Oklahoma City and was the principal Senate author for HB 1269.
