OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Mary Fallin, who leads the state with the highest female incarceration rate in the nation, on Tuesday outlined for a national forum the financial and emotional costs of the problem.
Fallin was the keynote speaker at “Women Unshackled: The First National Forum Focused on Policy Solutions to Female Incarceration” in Washington. It was sponsored by the Brennan Center and the Coalition for Public Safety.
The female prison population is growing faster than any other group, but the issue does not get the attention it deserves, said Holly Harris, Justice Action Network executive director.
Fallin acknowledged her state has work to do. “Oklahoma has the dubious honor of having the highest incarceration rate of women in the nation,” she said. “That is not something I am proud of.”
Some 83 percent of female prison admissions in Oklahoma are for nonviolent offenses, and the vast majority of women going to prison are involved in drug-related crimes, Fallin said.
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She said the nation has had an attitude of locking up drug offenders, but in her experience, that doesn’t always work.
Forty-two percent of women in Oklahoma prisons have a drug-related conviction, she said, while 69 percent have an actively managed mental health issue, compared to 44 percent of men.
The state has relied on diversion programs, re-entry programs, drug courts, mental health courts and other programs to keep families together and help women get treatment and avoid prison and recidivism, Fallin said.
She highlighted the successes of Women in Recovery, a Tulsa-based outpatient program that helps women facing prison for drug offenses.
A large number of women in prison are themselves victims of crime, such as domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse, Fallin said.
In addition, children who have a parent who is incarcerated are five times more likely to enter the criminal justice system, she said.
The state’s prison population will grow by an estimated 25 percent in the next few years, which will require three new prisons at a cost of $2 billion, Fallin said. She said she believes that the cycle of incarceration can be broken. “So that is why I fight the fight,” she said.
