Keaton Ross| Oklahoma Watch
Proposals to mandate pretrial data collection, crack down on domestic abuse and expand expungement eligibility are among the criminal justice bills eligible to be considered during the 2024 regular legislative session.
Oklahoma’s criminal justice system has rebounded from delays and logistical challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the threat of coronavirus behind bars has waned, concerns about anuptick in the state’s prison population, poor conditions atsome correctional facilitiesand thetreatment of mentally ill detaineespersist.
Here are five bills to watch in the 2024 legislative session, which convenes on Feb. 5:
1. Reforming penalties for domestic violence in Oklahoma
Bill Number:Senate Bill 1211
Sponsor:Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond
As Oklahoma’s domestic violence rate trends up, several bills look to increase punishments for abusers.
Thompson’s proposal would increase the maximum first-time sentence for domestic abuse by strangulation from three to 10 years in state custody. Domestic abuse by strangulation can cause long-term injuries and trauma and has been shown by researchers to be a precursor to homicide, Oklahoma Watch reported in 2019.
Other anti-domestic violence bills filed wouldadd domestic abuseto the Oklahoma Violent Crimes Registration Act andreclassify domestic abuseagainst a pregnant woman as a felony.
More than25,000 domestic abuse incidentswere reported to Oklahoma law enforcement in 2021, a slight decrease from 2020 but higher than the average total from 2011 to 2021.
2. Changing rules on pretrial data
Bill Number:House Bill 3957
Sponsor:Meloyde Blancett, D-Tulsa
This bill would require district attorneys, police departments and jailers to submit monthly data on felony and misdemeanor charging decisions, average jail stays and bail amounts to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. The information would be publicly accessible on a state-run website.
Advocates for expanded justice data collection argue the information would allow state lawmakers to craft better reform policies. Several states, including Florida and Michigan, have enacted similar legislation in recent years.
“All of our conversations on reform or alternatives to incarceration really are centered on emotion and not fact,” Blancett said. “I, coming from a business background, feel like it’s important to get agnostic data that’s not bent to drive a conclusion, but rather inform and tell us what the heck is going on out there.”
3. Lowering the waiting period to expunge most misdemeanors
Bill Number:House Bill 3037
Sponsor:Preston Stinson, R-Edmond
This bill would authorize the expungement of most misdemeanor offenses three years after the completion of a sentence. The current waiting period is five years.
Looking to boost workforce participation and ease reentry barriers, lawmakers have embraced expungement reform. In 2022 the Legislature passed House Bill 3316, which authorized the state to automatically expunge certain criminal offenses. State officials expect the system to launch by 2026.
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The manual expungement process is complex and typically requires applicants to hire an attorney. Those who can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars in fees may struggle to find secure housing and employment.
“When someone has a conviction on their record or even a deferred sentence, those things are huge barriers to getting the job that really pays enough to live on or getting safe housing that requires a background check,” Rachel Delcour, the criminal justice director for Women in Recovery,told Oklahoma Watchin 2022. “We want to save people money, but more than that I want people to get better jobs and better housing and remove some of those barriers.”
4. Unannounced prison visits would be allowed under Oklahoma bill
Bill Number:House Bill 3082
Sponsor:Justin Humphrey, R-Lane
This bill authorizes state elected officials to enter any state prison at any time to inspect conditions and interview staff and inmates. Pennsylvania enforcesa similar law.
Humphrey, who chairs the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee, told Oklahoma Watch in November he would look to boost prison accountability in response to reports of poor conditions at the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton. Last yeardozens of Great Plains prisoners were confinedto 3-by-2.5-foot shower stalls for several hours or days due to backlogs in the facility’s restricted housing unit.
In response to the proposal, corrections department spokesperson Kay Thompson said the agency has an open door policy with elected officials and the measure is unnecessary.
5. Reworking Oklahoma's criminal code, and creating a felony classification system
Bill Number:House Bill 3455
Sponsor:Anthony Moore, R-Clinton
A push to modernize Oklahoma’s criminal code fell short in the final weeks of last year’s legislative session, but lawmakers appear poised to take another crack at it in 2024.
Moore’s bill groups felonies by severity with common sentencing ranges. The proposal as currently written does not include sentencing ranges, but that could be modified as the legislative process progresses.
Critics of Oklahoma’s current criminal code say it lacks uniformity and causes sentencing ranges to vary widely from county to county. For instance, a second offense of second-degree burglary is punishable by two years to life in prison.The legislative push to reform Oklahoma’s criminal code accelerated after voters in 2020 rejectedState Question 805, which proposed barring courts from imposing sentence enhancements for certain crimes. While versions of a classification bill passed out of the House and Senate last year,the proposal stalledin a Senate conference committee and failed to reach the governor’s desk.
Keaton Ross covers democracy and criminal justice for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at (405) 831-9753 orKross@Oklahomawatch.org.Follow him on Twitter at@_KeatonRoss.
