Pubdate: Sun, 09 Mar 2003
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2003 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Tim Talley, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

LAWMAKERS LOOKING TO CUT PRISON POPULATION, COSTS

OKLAHOMA CITY - From resurrecting the prison cap law to making marijuana 
possession punishable by the equivalent of a traffic ticket, Oklahoma 
lawmakers are looking for ways to cut the state's prison population and its 
skyrocketing costs. Faced with a $677 million budget shortfall next year, 
the 2003 Legislature is considering sentencing reforms and other proposals 
to reduce the state's incarceration rate, one of the nation's highest, 
without jeopardizing public safety.

"It's trying to balance the need to reduce our corrections costs, which 
have just exploded over the last two decades," said James Drummond, a 
member of the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission and chief of the non-capital 
trial division of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System.

The state Senate is considering a plan to resurrect the prison cap law. It 
would allow the early release of eligible, nonviolent inmates when prisons 
become too crowded, provided they have 60 days or fewer to serve on their 
sentences.

The cap law was repealed in 2001, five years after an inmate released under 
the law shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and her parents and wounded his 2 
1/2-year-old son before he was killed by police.

Last week, the Sentencing Commission handed down a list of proposed 
sentencing reforms, including elimination of mandatory minimum sentences 
for certain drug offenses and allowing more offenders to receive suspended 
sentences and participate in community sentencing programs.

The commission said the number of felony offenders projected for state 
prisons in the next few years will outstrip the number of prison beds the 
Department of Corrections can afford.

"The idea is to expand the base of convicts who are sentenced to community 
sentencing to alternatives to incarceration," Drummond said.

Recommendations include making possession of one ounce or less of marijuana 
a misdemeanor subject to a citation not unlike a traffic ticket. Offenders 
could still receive some jail time and be ordered to participate in 
mandatory treatment programs.

Statistics compiled by the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center found 
that drug and alcohol offenses are the leading causes of prison sentences 
in the state, accounting for 44 percent of all receptions in 2001.

The center found that marijuana possession accounted for 12 percent of all 
felony drug possessors convicted in 2001. Drummond said Oklahoma has more 
minor, nonviolent drug offenders in prison per capita than any state in the 
region.

District Attorney John Wampler of Altus, also a member of the Sentencing 
Commission, said the state needs more programs to treat alcohol and drub 
abusers as an alternative to incarceration.

"The problem has consistently been the Legislature is not funding those 
programs," Wampler said. "Incarcerating someone is expensive. But treating 
someone is expensive as well."

Another recommendation would give judges, not prosecutors, the authority to 
decide who is eligible for community sentencing programs. The commission 
turned down a similar proposal to make judges the gatekeepers for 
defendants assigned to drug courts.

A constitutional amendment would be required to authorize another of the 
commission's proposals; not requiring the governor's approval for parole 
release unless the district attorney or victim has protested the inmate's 
parole with the Pardon and Parole Board.

The Criminal Justice Resource Center found that 60 percent of all parole 
recommendations in the state are not contested by victims or prosecutors.

A study released last month by the Oklahoma Alliance for Public Policy 
Research said Oklahoma's incarceration rate is 56 percent higher than the 
national average.

Reducing Oklahoma's incarceration rate to the national average would purge 
state prisons of more than 8,000 inmates at a savings of more than $138 
million a year, the study found.

"I have no idea how close this will get us to the national average," said 
K.C. Moon, director of the Criminal Justice Resource Center, which helped 
develop the sentencing commission's recommendations. "I know it will get us 
closer."

Prison spending in Oklahoma has doubled to almost $400 million in the past 
10 years and the inmate population has grown from 14,400 to more than 
23,000. "It is unacceptably high," Drummond said.

The state ranks fourth in the nation behind Louisiana, Mississippi and 
Texas in the number of people it sends to prison per capita.

The state Board of Corrections has resurrected a plan to place the state's 
more than 4,800 corrections workers on unpaid furlough to help offset a cut 
in the agency's budget due to the revenue shortfall.

During a special session in November, the Legislature passed a $9.8 million 
supplemental appropriation to postpone the furloughs, which officials said 
could jeopardize public safety.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom