With the emphasis on how releasing prisoners will save the state money, you get the feeling these legislatures would be happy to keep people locked up if only the states could afford it.
2
A bad day for for-profit incarceration; maybe a civilized nation should not incentivize it.
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@Thurman Munson
The whole concept of three strikes your out was all about saving rural cities with for profit prisons. People for non violent crimes were shipped from Massachusetts to southern towns, not because there was overcrowding in Mass prisons but it was a deliberate policy to maintain high numbers in these for profit institutions'. Providing guard jobs for dying towns
Moving inmates from their families to another state destroyed communities'. destroyed children women were treated harshly and the sentences were unbelievable long for non violent offenses. Courts hiding under the three strikes your out policy
The courts, legal system was rigged to destroy minorities, women and there was never a real war on drugs, It was a war on minorities and veterans. Middle class white people never were caught up in this vicious circle of no justice. When your a minority you went to jail if your white as with this opiate addiction you are sent to rehab.
20
@Tony
Absolutely correct.
Everyone needs to read
The New Jim Crow,
Brilliant book.
6
@Thurman Munson I'm afraid the USA is no longer a civilized nation.
4
For many years I have written to the NYT and the WSJ that I believe that of the millions of prisoners in state and federal prisons, most should receive commuted sentences and even full pardons for the non-violent crimes they have committed or are alleged to have committed. I also have written that prisons are not solving the problem of real crime in America. Incarcerating people for dozens of years for minor, non-violent offenses is it self, an offense. The same goes for some crimes that harmed no-one, like the crime committed by the former mayor of Chicago who was caught trying to sell a Senate seat. No one died, no one was bloodied or beaten and no one was hurt, but the offense was alleged to be egregious. So, the man was sentenced to 17 years in prison for being a jerk. It's outrageous. The prosecutor and the judge should be in prison just to feel the pain that they imposed on another human being.
Prisons, for anyone who is non-violent is a useless waste of time, money resources and the lives of those people caught in our unjust system of justice. Only the truly violent and the guilty of serious crimes belong in prison. And even some of those can be rehabilitated. Not all mind you.
Let's start knocking down prisons and investing more in helping people and not doing them more harm than they have done.
Prisons don't work. They don't protect us from non-violent offenders. They just make some prosecutors and judges feel powerful and self righteous.
Let's do better.
36
@Jack Frost Got room for the petty thieves, burglars, con men, rip off artists, and public defecators in your house?
7
@Jack Frost
It is not always welcome to answer these questions from personal experience; still, I can report that I have never been assaulted by anyone confined in prison.
1
@Ernest Montague
That was inappropriate, unkind, not necessary and wrong at every level. We know that some people are incorrigible, corrupt, mean spirited, sneaky, drunk, drugged, and mentally ill. They belong in an institution where they can be helped and/or as necessary restrained. There are lots of difficult, strange and miserable people who must be dealt with so that the public is protected. What I am saying is that there are too many people who clearly do not belong in prisons, sentenced to years of isolation and punishment for non-violent crimes. Prisons are not the answer for every misdemeanor and some felonies too. A white collar criminal can be monitored outside of prison. The homeless and mentally ill, if non-violent offenders do not belong in prisons. The list goes on. You know that. So do many of us.
9
Thousands of Oklahoma inmates remain unjustly incarcerated due to the state's inhumane sentence enhancement procedures. Let's hope Governor Stitt doesn't rest with this small victory but rather feels the support and empowerment of a populace that is tired of its reputation as "the world's prison capital."
55
@Michael, as a fellow Tulsan, I will also focus on supporting a viable opponent to DA Steve Kunzweiler. He has an outdated and Manichean view of criminal justice, and we need someone who is willing to try something other than throwing the book at every violator.
5
Releasing 500 prisoners 1.34 years early will save the state 12 million dollars. I wonder if Oklahoma spends 12 million dollars for every 500 students every 1.34 years. Since many schools in Oklahoma have gone to 4-day weeks because they can't afford to stay open, I doubt if Oklahoma spends near as much on students as they do on sending people to prison.
Maybe if the state spent more on education, they'd end up spending less on prisons because the students would have more of a future.
139
@Linda , yes, it's because of the money that our state has released these prisoners. In republican hands, mercy comes when it pays cash. Our prisons were under injunctions, the injunctions unmet, the situation dire--as are the schools and other public goods, Linda, as we've seen for years now. As a state where the bosses refused to expand Medicaid, it's not suddenly popular with the high and mighty to care about human suffering or justice, either. When kindness yields money to the wealth class, when love pays dividends in dollars, then you can look for those from republicans. Only then. And for many, that's too late. But I applaud them now, on the off chance that the applause might move them to do something merciful again someday.
65
The highest incarceration rate of the USA in the industrialized world ( 8 times more per capita than Europe ) is part of the capitalist machine and ideology .It goes also with the highest violent crime rate , 8 times as well superior to European average .
And the shameful death penalty in the last nation not to have abolished it. Statistics show that white collar crime has a low prosecution incidence in the USA , compared to Europe.
The UK which has a similar capitalist economy with no social benefits and high social inequalities has an incarceration rate about double the European rate . The capitalist system needs to coerce people who don't follow its rules, Poor people are pushed to jail for political reasons not criminal. And the violence of that system creates violence. But real criminals don't go to jail.
Michel Foucault theorized that in the 70's. But who reads sociology or criminology in the USA ?
Almost 1 % of all US citizens are in jail at all times . 0.8 % exactly.
750 per 100 000.
Europe has an incarceration rate of less than 0.1 % .
Under 100 per 100 000.
And 8 times less violent crime than the USA .
You have 50 times more risk to be killed while robbed in the US than in Europe.
All prisons do is ruin lives for people who are already damaged in some way and usually through no fault of their own.
If punishment worked, then prisons would have disappeared a long time ago.
Separating someone who is a sociopathic murderers yes. Someone caught with pot or cocaine? No.
The “ war on drugs” serves to incarcerate black people.white people are sent to rehab.
9
Somehow polititions made a sane decision in one of our 50 states.
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@Thomas Forced by the voters through a ballot initiative. Good on the voters! PS Oklahoma has a lot of private, for-profit prisons.
1
It’s a very good step that would enable these people to rectify their mistakes and integrate. For this to happen, their near and dear ones play a very key role in it. It’s a slow process that needs plenty of patience. They might need proper counselling even.
Hope society will accept them slowly. Most important thing is that they should be in a position to get jobs within a reasonable period based on their qualifications and experience without any harassment of any kind.
10
@Sivaram Pochiraju Great comment, thanks.
Before you dance in the streets, let us remember that there are very serious nonviolent crimes: identity theft, fraud causing people to lose their life savings, and perjury causing the false imprisonment of the innocent, just to name several examples. There also are crimes which should remain felonies, but not carry a penalty of imprisonment. Rather, these felons should remain barred from voting, and barred from certain occupations as well.
6
We do not agree. A careful review of the commutation does not comport with your assertions. The Oklahoma law seems to target low level of drug possessions, failure to pay taxes as well as other petty crimes. While we can appreciate your assertions we can clearly state that our (USA in general) Criminal Justice System (“CJS”) has failed to reform and produce rehabilitate citizens. Our CJS has 92.3 percent recidivism which is more than any other nation in the world. Further, according to a recent study by the USDOJ over 40 percent of the US prison population should have been diagnosed as mental health patients and sent to mental health institutions.
While we concur with you that certain non violent crimes require incarceration we do not agree that that incarceration as it is conducted now, will produce any meaningful results. In addition, barring former felons from voting or other civic right and duties is prejudicial and should be changed. According to the current prison system, prisoners are being rehabilitate in prison in order to rejoin society. Thus, it is incongruent to make such statements and revoke fundamental but ask such Re4Med citizen to pay
15
Are their voting rights immediately restored?
8
@Richard Schumacher Hopefully, never!
4
@Richard Schumacher
I'm not a lawyer, but California has information out on the internet that makes a distinction between felonies and misdemeanors, the latter does not disqualify voter eligibility.
These have been described as 'non-violent' crimes.
https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting-resources/voting-california/who-can-vote-california/voting-rights-californians/
2
"Now go and be free!"
So what's next? Any actual rehabilitation? What about resources to integrate back into society- what with all those prison-cost savings?
7
Good positive step by Governor!
9
Noise in the system for the country that has the highest incarceration rate of any "civilized" country in the world.
4
@jhanzel In your negativism, I think you've forgotten the 462 people for whom this was very much not noise. Their lives aren't your punch line.
8
For private prisons are the prime source of these high incarnations.
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@Dorothy Wiese
Private prisons in Florida lobbied to put more people in jail. It's good for their bottom line.
It's all great except for the minor details. In California now, with our new catch and release policy, minor crimes aren't even worthy of an indictment. That includes stealing iphones and computers. It includes urination and defecation in public, harassment, and all petty theft. Petty crime is skyrocketing, but the arrest rates are great! Why? Nobody calls the cops anymore. They won't even come out. We also now have thousands of criminals released early, including rapists and drug dealers.
15
@Ernest Montague
To further blacken the picture we have apparently a spike in police suicides.
1
This failed war on drugs has caused the national disgrace this country has by incarcerating far more people than any other country in the world.
24
The USA have the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world . * times more than the average in Europe .
Almost 1 % of all US citizens is in jail at all times. 0.8 % exactly.
As a reference, the prisons in France are considered over crowded , but France has 0.1 % in jail. 9 times less.Per capita.
Also the USA have the highest violent crime rate per capita in the advanced world. 8 times superior to the European average.
Violent crime is physical aggression with permanent residual injuries , rape and murder.
7
@JPH The US has a population of about 340 million. 1% of that is 3.4 million. The US has around 2.4 million prisoners, that's simply a response to your erroneous claim.
3
@Ernest Montague No .I wrote 0.8 % to be exact.
And your argument fails at proving that the USA don't have a highest and 8 times superior per capita rate of incarceration.Compared to Europe.
just look at the statistics in serious criminology studies.
Again you prove that Americans in their education are incapable of conceptualization.
4
@JPH Here to correct that the incarceration rate in the USA is 8 times superior than the European average ( France for example with 0.1 % of its citizens in jail )
The USA have 0.8 % of all citizens in jail at all times.
3
Throughout the story. I did not see anything about follow up supporting to get these inmates to function in a free society.
13
@Pepperman Then you missed it. They started before they left with helping them with re-entry plans...some of them have them. And now, their communities will step up too.
Freedom; what does it mean to us as an American society? To treat medical regulation with criminal justice and incarcerate non violent mothers, brothers, daughters and fathers?
Oklahoma has moved faster to legalize medical marijuana perhaps because the history of over-incarceration... because of the political violence and exploitation of native people and their lands is so fresh in the memory and in the blood of the people. We could all do well to follow Oklahoma’s lead.
8
“Voters forced the hand of Oklahoma lawmakers in 2016 when, by a wide margin, they approved a plan to shrink prison rolls by downgrading many felonies to misdemeanors, including simple drug possession and minor property crimes.”
Finally truly good news... Congrats!
16
Yup ! Oklahoma's population of some 4 M, one of every 154 people is/was incarcerated.
Take away babies, school-age children and the statistics gets much, much worse.
17
@Jak
Maybe a good proportion of the imprisoned are from out of state so the numbers aren't THAT bad..../snark
Note: when you add in babies and children the number of imprisoned per 100,00 of all ages is lower than the number imprisoned per 100,000 adults
Wiki has 2016 numbers - 7 states have rates higher than 1000 per 100,000 adults ( juveniles in detention not included )
Alabama 1080
Arizona 1030
Arkansas 1050
Georgia 1160
Kentucky 1010
Louisiana 1270
Mississippi126
Oklahoma 1310
Texas 1050
California and Texas each have over 200.000 inmates, Florida just under 150,000.
The US rate of imprisonment is insanely high yet most seem unaware of just how bad it is compared to the rest of the world.
8
@cynicalskeptic
Florida has about 96,000 in prison. The 150,000 figure is more akin to the number under supervision.
The criminality is in the laziness of the state of answering everything with “throw them in jail”
Conservative ideology is just laziness. Too lazy to bother with addressing the problem nor finding solutions to get at the root of the causes.
“Why should I have to pay for my some one else’s ‘blank’” .
29
@Jeff ... Addressing the problem? Finding a solution? ---- simple. Don't get arrested. Don't break the law. Get a job and keep it.
8
@Rufus Wow some people are clueless. Don't get arrested....don't break the law? Yeah, tell that to the people who were pulled over for simply 'being black' and then ended up dead.
Get a job and keep it? Do you know how many people PRAY for just that??
30
Back before they started sending “too many” people to jail I had to uninstall my car stereo every night or risk losing it to a non-violent drug user looking to score a few bucks. Eventually, I had to resort to leaving the car unlocked and empty, so that the fools who regularly tried to rob me wouldn’t damage the vehicle in their insatiable search for loose change. Speaking of being robbed, I haven’t had to fight off a mugger recently either. I guess all good things must come to an end.
19
@Larry Your average 'non-violent drug user' isn't necessarily going around breaking into cars and stealing stereos. Remember, even people who had drugs on their person have been thrown into prison. Typically those who are desperate enough to steal are on highly addictive type drugs, whereby the drug basically controls them.
But, you seem to think that making sure your car stereo is protected, is worth the price of sending people to prison for years or decades, and all because of something stupid they did?
It's interesting how so much of the rest of the 'civilized' world does not have anywhere near the incarceration rates of the US, yet they don't have any more street crime than we do.
12
Hmmmm, the article made no mention of decriminalizing theft and personal assault. It seems no one got early release for those charges, so your pearl clutching is a bit misguided, wouldn’t you say?
16
@Larry Come to California. We let them out of jail now, and don't indict for minor crimes like stealing stereo or cell phone. Or wallet. Or using the sidewalk for a bathroom. It's civilized, you know.
8
I would love to give kudos to the state for doing this, although I'm quite certain that, with Oklahoma's record, it's being done strictly to reduce costs. The alternative would be to reduce schools to a 3-day week, which may make too clear that their trickle-down tax experiment has failed yet again. Is Kansas next?
12
@Hector Oklahoma would be wise to put the savings toward drug rehab and job training. People who are in recovery/clean and sober and have at least a part time time job have far fewer reasons to commit crimes.
1
I'm going to take a wild guess that Oklahoma's prison population is 3% of the total population or roughly 120,000 prisoners. So 500 inmates released will be four tenths of one percent. If the prison population is half of my estimate (which is based on the U.S. total prison population)--I think that unlikely--it would be 8 tenths of one percent.
So this is a small movement that is directionally correct. It is, as my grandmother used to say, "better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick." It will be meaningful to the 500 individuals who get their freedom but the "lock em up" mentality is still very much alive.
20
As the story stated, Oklahoma’s prison population is less than 26,000. Its total population is just over 4 million.
1
Prisoners will be released without proper training and "transition advice" from prison life to the outside, and lacking mental health "management" ...many of them are probably and sadly already "corrupted" by life inside prison and will have a really hard time adjusting to life outside of prison....high chance too they will be given one way tickets to the big cities....where they end up homeless and due to their mental issues and stigma from being in prison, will end up doing drugs. Falling into the cycle of despair yet again. Sad.
@Ying Yang Every part of your comment is directly contradicted by portions of the article. Perhaps they won't all do well, but that does not negate the positive action of commuting their sentences and giving these folks another chance.
14
@Ying Yang
In life there are those who see the glass half empty. Those who see it half full. Choose!
1
@Ying Yang You do have a point. I'm all for reducing the number of people in our prison system, but it must go hand-in-hand with providing former inmates with meaningful job training, help with getting jobs, new homes, money management, mental health counseling, etc. It is extremely hard to get a job and/or a new apartment when you have a prison record.
9
You must all listen to the podcast Ear Hustle. It’s about prison life and their stories of life inside. It’s just fabulous.
5
I never would have thought a state like OK would be a leader in this type of sentencing reform. Hats off to them.
43
@TY
Oklahoma is hardly a "leader" in sentencing reform, or frankly, in any other objectively important facet of basic living standards (public education, housing, nutrition/health, minimum wage, etc.). Don't get too hopeful into thinking today's prisoner release was an act of compassionate benevolence. It was merely a pragmatic financial decision, with political benefits for the governor. Maybe Oklahoma will use the $12 million they saved today on their dismal education budget. Oklahoma is literally one of the worst states in the country to be a teacher.
As pessimistic as we may be (Republican governor), let's hope that this small act of basic decency will pave the way towards other much needed changes (education reform) that will benefit everyone in Oklahoma.
13
Not to be snarky, but noting that this passed by referendum, I wonder if we'll be seeing fewer "lock her up" signs in OK.
12
In NZ they have them on some sort of trades training, for example, learning building skills while in prison so they have some skills when they leave. I saw some prisoners on NZ news last week building State houses for the government. They get paid between 40 cents and 80 cents a day. (Why they get paid anything is beyond me as they are in prison for committing a crime.) Though I think it is a good idea to channel their energy into life skills training and learning a trade so they have a skill in an honest way to make a living.
23
@CK
They should get paid--it is an incentive to do well. In the U.S., there are a lot of for-profit prisons that essentially force prisoners and undocumented immigrants to do slave labor. The corporations make even more profits that way, and it is in their interest to keep the prisons filled, with more slaves for even longer sentences.
55
@CK I doesn’t really work that way, anywhere. An offender can get all the skills training available while in prison, but if that ex-offender has no recognized industry certification and a validated sponsor, he/she will still be left working in a porn joint, or a rural chicken or beef rendering plant, with minimum wage. That is, if they are lucky.
13
@CK
You write, “Why they get paid anything is beyond me as they are in prison for committing a crime.”
Just put yourself in their shoes for ten minutes. Exercise you clear mind and experience. Wouldn’t you want to save those pennies to send them home, to save for a present for a dear one, to....whatever. After all you ( the ten minute worker worker in jail) are earning it with the sweat of your brow.
6
I find it unusual that as incarceration rates have increased and we experience record low crime rates, we also see a bipartisan push to reduce incarceration levels. I’m not a fan of high levels of incarceration but I have to wonder whether there is some cause and effect at play. Perhaps in 10 years we’ll know whether we’ve made the best choice.
4
@Brian When you make someone a felon, you strip his right to vote. When that felon is still "on paper" (probation), he doesn't have the same 4th Amendment rights we have; he can be locked up for basically any reason. Tough on Crime laws are a method of voter suppression; it's a feature, not a bug.
75
@Brian it's called "for profit prisons", that and federal funding (war on drugs) to keep people charged with simple possession in prison for long periods, so the prison corporation can turn profit off of their free labor.
42
@Brian , your premise isn't true, at least for Oklahoma. Our very high incarceration rates have been accompanied by high crime rates, too, instead of being lower. So there is no evidence here of any such cause and effect as you suggest.
"In 2018, the violent crime rate in the Sooner State rose 1.9% over the previous year, to 466.1 incidents per 100,000 people, compared to 380.6 nationally, or more than 20% higher than the rest of the country overall.
Oklahoma was higher than the nation in four major crime rate categories — murder, rape, aggravated assault and property crime. The robbery rate here was lower than it was nationally."
“There seems to be some structural factors and some cultural factors not just in Oklahoma, but the entire region,” said Christopher Hill, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Oklahoma whose research areas include criminology, criminal justice and juvenile justice."
https://oklahoman.com/article/5643996/oklahomas-violent-crime-rate-higher-than-average
10
Is there adequate rehabilitation support available to these 500 ex inmates? Releasing them without planning for how they re-enter society - find jobs, housing and transportation, counseling is a prescription for recidivism.
18
No. But there are more opportunities on the outside than on the inside. It’s a start.
1