OK CURE
Ensuring that prisons are used only for those who absolutely must be incarcerated and that prisoners have all the resources they need to turn their lives around.
P. O. Box 9741
Tulsa, OK 74157-0741
ph: 918-744-9857
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News & Events
Cell Block 2 - OSP
Visiting Schedule CHANGES: June 18, 2010
EffeThe following information has been confirmed by DOC. The budget cuts are causing the DOC furloughs of the staff will also effect visitation at the state facilities. Note - Minimum facilities wil start allowing smoking again starting July 1.
Visitation at all State facilities will be canceled on the weeks staff are furloughed: July 16 and 30, August 13 and 27, September 17 and 24, October 15 and 29, November 5 and 19, December 10 and 17, January 14 and 28 (2011), and February 11 and 18 (2011); and then nearly every week end March thru June 2011 if supplemental funding is not received. There has been no decision as of yet to cancel Holiday visits.
"Locked Up" - Part of Oklahoma Christian's Complex Dialogues Series - Urban Tulsa Weekly - December 28, 2009
Locked Up. Oklahoma Christian University, in partnership with the George Kaiser Family Foundation and Don and Donna Millican, announced it will host a summit on Jan. 26 to address the high rate of female incarceration in Oklahoma. The summit, which is a part of Oklahoma Christian's Complex Dialogues series, will focus on prevention and early intervention as well as incarceration alternatives for nonviolent offenders, who make up 68 percent of Oklahoma's female prison population.
Oklahoma currently leads the United States in incarcerating women, at a rate of 134 women per 100,000, compared to the national average of 69 women per 100,000.
"Our high rate of incarcerating nonviolent females not only impacts the state financially, but more importantly, it adversely affects the children of those incarcerated and thus influences future generations," said Rep. Kris Steele. "We must be smarter in our efforts to address nonviolent women offenders. With input and participation from leaders across the state, I am confident that we can address this issue through legislative, judicial, community support, educational, prevention and early intervention initiatives developed during the summit."
Committees comprised of Oklahoma legislators, judges, attorneys, community service providers, educators, researchers, business leaders and government officials will meet several times prior to the conference to discuss steps each group can take to solve the issue. Recommendations from each group will be presented and discussed during the summit.
"This is an important issue that impacts every community in our state," said Ken Levit, executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation. "The summit will serve as a spring board for a statewide discussion that will result in proactive initiatives and innovative solutions for reducing our female incarceration rate."
"The Complex Dialogues series is an important part of our university's commitment to free and respectful inquiry and the search for truth, which helps our students become wise thinkers and make a meaningful difference for good in our world," said Dr. Mike O'Neal, president of Oklahoma Christian University. "This will not be your typical conference. We are bringing together key decision makers and challenging them to develop solutions that they can implement following the conference. It is our strong intention that the ultimate outcome of this symposium not be merely an acknowledgement of the problem and an academic exercise about solutions, but rather many lives enriched and a better Oklahoma."
For more information on the Women Incarcerated Summit, please contact Brian Bush, executive director of Oklahoma Christian University Academy of Leadership and Liberty, at brian.bush@oc.edu or (405) 425-1065 (405) 425-1065 .
Future Cuts Looming - OPINION Tulsa World - December 27-27, 2009
For Terri White, the math isn't;t difficult or fuzzy. Oklahomans' inability to receive the mental health and substance abuse treatment they need only increases the burden on the criminal justice system. In Rocky budget times, that leaves lawmakers with an important choice. Will they consider mental health and substance abuse services -- the agency White oversees __ as an offshoot of public safety entitled to some measure of budget protection?
Or will these services face the potential drastic that are likely to hit other so called nonessential services of state government? The answer, White believes, will say much about where the state is in its understanding of brain health. That's hardly the only question facing legislators.But it is an important one. Because as hard as mental health officials have worked in recent years to destigmatize mental illness and substance abuse, drastically reducing the availability of treatment services for Oklahomans who can't afford it on their own could easily undo that process.
Not all who suffer from mental illness or addictions are prone to violence. But it only takes one horrific crime -- think the Nichols Hills doctor with a history of mental problems accused of killing his son -- to convince those suffering that they might be ostracized for seeking treatment. For some, a choice to forgo treatment would be dangerous not only for themselves but those around them. "These are the things that can shake communities and their perceptions of mental illness," White said, noting that more than 600 Oklahomans are on a daily waiting list to receive state -funded services.
Families also can fall victim to reduced treatment services, when mentally ill or drug addicted parents can't get the help they need to keep a family together and children are neglected or abused. White and Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones agree that diversionary programs such as mental health and substance abuse treatment not only are good for Oklahomans but cost less in the long run. Drug and mental health courts that keep non-violent offenders out of prisons are proof of that.
Even more cost effective are treatment programs that help keep Oklahomans from ever coming in contact with law enforcement, and prevent further burdening prisons with Oklahomans, unquenchable lock--'em--up attitude. In fact, the link between corrections and mental health and substance abuse treatment is so strong that lawmakers should seriously consider a new way for those agencies to function in the future. Now, the Corrections Department handles it's own treatment services within prisons.
It could make more sense to let the mental health agency and its experts expand services into prisons and let corrections officials focus on their core job -- keeping the bad guys behind bars. Some lawmakers have recognized the budget crisis as an opportunity to take a fresh look at government. Here's a chance to show they mean it.
Oklahoma City Lawmaker Wants Governor Eventually Removed from Parole Process
- December 8, 2009 - by Barbara Hoberock - World Capitol Bureau
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma City lawmaker on Tuesday said she will introduce legislation to eventually remove the governor from the parole process.
Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Oklahoma City, said her measure would make a recommendation from the state Pardon and Parole Board be approved if the governor failed to act on it within 30 days. However, the governor would still be involved in the process for heinous crimes, such as murder and rape, she said.
Rep. Sue Tibbs, R-Tulsa, had filed similar legislation in the past. It passed the House, but it did not get heard in the Senate, Johnson said.
Johnson said her legislation would allow for a trial period and then put the issue of removing the governor entirely from the process to a vote of the people, something which voters have not approved in the past.
But Johnson said there is growing momentum for removing the governor from the process. "As it is, Oklahoma is the only remaining state where the governor is involved in the parole process," Johnson said.
The Board of Corrections supports removing the governor from the process as a means to reduce incarceration rates.
John Pearson, chairman of Citizens for Responsible Parole, said the state's current budget crisis will give lawmakers the "cover" they need to vote for Johnson's bill.
State agencies have been told to reduce budgets by 5 percent through the remainder of the fiscal year, with deeper cuts possible, as a result of a significant decline in state revenue.
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections has a budget of about half a billion dollars, yet the agency is still severely underfunded, Pearson said.
Pearson said there is widespread support for removing the governor from the parole process.
Correction Official Urges Reform Plan - December 1, 2009 - World Capital Bureau - by Barbara Hoberock
The Department of Corrections is approaching its breaking point, said David Hanneke, a board of Corrections member. Henneke, chairman of the board's legislative committee, asked in a Nov 23 letter to lawmakers for reconsideration of a number of previously discarded proposals to reduce the agency's costs. "We are thinking that maybe with the economic times the way they are, maybe some of the things may have a better chance." Hanneke said.
The board suggests removing the governor from the parole process. Previous efforts to change the process have failed. A recent audit projected that a 30 percent parole approval rate would result in a stagnant if not declining prison population, the letter says. "At the time of the audit, the governor was approving 18.98 percent of those considered for parole," the letter says.
The audit suggested that the state could save $40.7 million over 10 years by eliminating the governor from the parole process, the letter says. However, such a move would require voter approval, something which has failed in the past. Henneke said in the letter that while we are reducing our budget by an annualized 5 percent ($22,650,000) we are currently experiencing a supplemental need of approximately $6 million just for the net offender growth.
There are also over 1,600 offenders in county jails, sentenced and awaiting arrival to the department." The board is also suggesting restarting an early release program for nonviolent offenders who are within 60 days of release when the prison population has been at 95 percent of capacity for 30 days.
"In the past, we have had disagreements with the board on the definition of nonviolent," said Senate Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City. Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, said "I do not favor early release as a cost control measure." Terrill is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety and the Judiciary.
The board is also suggesting reducing the percentage of time an inmate must serve for certain crimes before the offender can be considered for parole to 65 percent. Such a move would mean offenders who committed those crimes would be supervised on parole rather than released to the streets with no supervision, Hanneke said.
Terrill said the agency has been productive in reducing its budget but that he is concerned about the prospects of furloughing agency staff. Many of the proposals may result in savings in the long run, but not in the short term, he said. "If there is no relief in appropriations or staffing and the Department of Corrections is forced to do some furloughs, then i see no alternative but to make a public call for a lockdown at the facilities during that period of time," Terrill said.
A year ago, shortly before the recession kicked the stool out from under state revenues, Oklahoma Academy researchers asked what it would take to put Oklahoma at the national average in incarceration rates.
This is what it would take: The immediate release of 9,000 inmates, including half the women behind bars.
Don't worry, we're not about to reach the national average, which is at least three percentage points lower than Oklahoma's rate of incarceration. But if we did, the savings would be significant — more than $100 million annually. But Oklahoma is loathe to stoop to the national average. The history of corrections over the past 30 years shows that we'd rather be safe than sorry in spite of the fact that all this incarceration has not greatly reduced crime rates.
P. O. Box 9741
Tulsa, OK 74157-0741
ph: 918-744-9857
okcure
