Persistance needed

Investments in justice reform are a good start, but savings are a long way off

Criminal justice reform advocates can be encouraged at the progress made on justice reform in Oklahoma’s 2018 legislative session. New laws that open up our broken parole process, reduce sentences for many nonviolent crimes, and recalibrate our supervision practices will significantly slow growth in our prison population.

At her press conference to sign those measures, Governor Mary Fallin also announced that the FY 2019 budget includes funding critical to making justice reform work. It’s heartening to see lawmakers recognize that improving our justice system will require targeted investments in alternatives to incarceration. It’s also a good reminder that, although reducing incarceration saves the state money in the long run, taking the first steps towards that goal requires some up-front spending.

This year, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections received a big bump in appropriations—from $486 million in FY 2018 to about $517 million this year. Nearly $5 million of that is directed to implementing a new offender management system. It’s almost unbelievable in this day and age, but Oklahoma’s current offender management system—which tracks the location and release dates of inmates—is kept by hand, meaning that release dates were calculated with pen and paper. Persistent budget shortfalls have caused many agencies, including DOC, to fall far behind the times.

The Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services received new funding as well, rising by about $9 million to an appropriation of $337 million in FY 2019. This is a good start as the state attempts to reach the two out of three Oklahomans who need these services but don’t receive them. Research shows that every dollar invested in drug treatment saves even more on crime reduction.

Gov. Fallin also announced increases of $1 million to support drug courts, $1.1 million to chronically underfunded Oklahoma public defenders, and $1 million to the District Attorneys Council, as well as $500,000 to Women In Recovery as part of a pay-for-success prison diversion program.

Advocates for justice reform often point out that it’s much cheaper to provide treatment for a person in the community than it is to house and feed them in a prison. However, it’s important to recognize that it will be a while before we can significantly reduce our spending on prisons. The states that have had the most success in reducing their prison populations have accomplished it not by one herculean effort, but by returning, year after year, to push further in reforming in every part of the justice system.

Perhaps the best example of this is Georgia, where Republican Governor Nathan Deal has led a sustained push for justice reform since taking office. Starting in 2011, the state reduced mandatory minimums, increased education opportunities for inmates, invested in rehabilitation programs, and reinvented its juvenile justice system. Each year, the legislature returned and passed more reforms. The Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform, created in 2013 to steer the state’s efforts, reported that prison admissions in 2017 had dropped to their lowest point since 2002. Fewer African-Americans were sent to prison in 2017 than in any year since 1987.

Oklahoma must follow the same path of persistent reform if we want to call justice reform a success. Making key investments in a relatively good budget year is a start; pressing those gains further in the years to come is essential to saving money and
improving public safety in the long run.

Ryan Gentzler is a policy analyst with Oklahoma Policy Institute (okpolicy.org).