On any given day, more than 9,000 Oklahomans are sitting in jail. They are likely to be in a facility that has dangerous overcrowding or recently failed a health inspection. Or they may simply be in jail because their name falls at the bottom of the list for transfer to a state mental health facility ― like the person who recently had to wait over 1,000 days.
The jail population in Oklahoma has not kept pace with decreasing crime and arrest rates in recent years, leaving the state with one of the highest incarceration rates in the United States. How can this be? The answer lies in the pretrial system, according to a new report from the MODERN Justice Task Force, commissioned by Gov. Kevin Stitt in July 2023.
People charged with a crime in Oklahoma are spending more days in jail as they await trial, undermining the presumption of innocence. And Oklahoma is incarcerating its way through a public health crisis. Despite having the second-highest rates of mental illness and substance use disorders in the country, state funding for mental health services has declined by 11% over the last decade. The absence of effective treatment means people often cycle in and out of jail, adding fuel to the flame of the jail system crisis in Oklahoma.
But above all, the new report shines light on what we do not and cannot see when it comes to the pretrial system in Oklahoma. After a deep dive into the data systems and infrastructure, the task force found that each of Oklahoma’s 75 county jails is independently operated and has a mutually exclusive system of collecting data on the people it holds behind its bars. Think of it like a game of telephone, stretched across the state: Sometimes operators are speaking the same language, and other times they are speaking different languages entirely. But what gets lost in translation has immense consequences.
Without a centralized system, policymakers cannot connect the dots among jails and grasp the urgent challenges facing the pretrial system as a whole. On the flip side, a policy change implemented in a jail in one county that may be replicable across others remains hidden, out of sight. Yet, 71% of voters in Oklahoma want to see more done in terms of criminal justice reform, according to a 2023 poll by Arnold Ventures.
We can begin to address the multiple challenges that contribute to the thousands of people held in pretrial incarceration in Oklahoma ― nearly 70% of the total jail population ― only when we can clearly see those challenges in the full light of day. When we have comprehensive public data, we are bound to have better outcomes. It’s for this reason that the task force, in its report, recommends reforming pretrial data collection and reporting.
At The Bail Project, we know the importance of data. As so little data is collected about the pretrial population at large, our national database provides key insight into this under-researched population. One thing we know from our data is that if you provide supportive services, clients will return to court most of the time ― we’ve posted bail for over 29,000 clients, who return to court over 91% of the time.
Policymakers need good data to make good decisions. Consider the MODERN Justice Task Force report as the first piece of evidence. The task force has delivered in making plain the need for modernizing data collection and reporting through a centralized, statewide system in order to create community safety for all Oklahomans ― whether they live in Cimarron County or Oklahoma County. Now, we urge lawmakers to follow the evidence by legislating a bill to create such a system.
Thank you for reading and your willingness to engage in a complicated and urgent issue. In addition to providing immediate relief by offering bail assistance, we at The Bail Project are working to advance systemic change. Policy change doesn’t happen without the support of people like you. If you found value in this article, please consider taking action today by donating.
