OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma will shed its status as the No. 1 incarcerator in the nation when more than 450 prisoners are released.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma will shed its status as the No. 1 incarcerator in the nation when more than 450 prisoners are released.
House Bill 1269, authored by House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols (R-Oklahoma City), is responsible for the Nov. 4 commutation of prisoners.
“Oklahoma is no longer the nation’s top incarcerator,” Echols said. “This historic moment is the clearest proof yet that legislators are listening to the people and acting on criminal justice reform.”
Oklahoma’s prison population has been in a sustained decline for three years.
HB 1269 alters simple drug possession and low-level property crime charges.
This move reduces Oklahoma’s incarceration rate by 1.7%, placing the state in the No. 2 spot for persons incarcerated per capita – behind Louisiana and slightly above Mississippi.
Oklahoma’s prison population last week, according to the Department of Corrections, was 26,334 out of a state population of 3,943,079, according to the Department of Corrections.
HB 1269 applies retroactively to inmates serving time for simple drug possession and property crimes valued at less than $1,000. Voters approved the reclassification of these crimes from felonies to misdemeanors with the
passage of State Question 780 in 2016. HB 1269 made the change retroactive to those previously sentenced. The bill was a bipartisan effort.