Oklahoma has overtaken Louisiana as the state with the highest incarceration rate in the United States, according to a new study.
Taking the top position from Louisiana also makes Oklahoma the global leader in incarceration. State authorities and reforms experts long anticipated Oklahoma taking the position since Louisiana legislators passed reforms in the past 12 to 18 months. Reform efforts undertaken in Oklahoma are expected to only slow the incarceration growth rate in the state and not reduce it, said Kris Steele, chair for Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform.
“Our correction system is not correcting as it should,” Steele said. “Our prison system is not reforming individuals; it’s not correcting or modifying behavior in many cases.”
Oklahoma’s incarceration rate is 1,079 per 100,000 people, leading the nation after previously sitting at No. 2, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Louisiana, which previously held the top spot, has an incarceration rate of 1,052 per 100,000 people.
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“The Department of Corrections is underfunded — and I think they’re doing the best they can — but because they don’t have adequate resources, we’re simply warehousing individuals,” Steele said. “That’s a recipe for disaster.”
DOC Director Joe Allbaugh said in January that Oklahoma would surpass Louisiana because of Louisiana’s reforms and “the limited results of criminal justice reform in our state,” according to an Oklahoma Watch story.
It costs about $19,000 per year per person for prison incarceration. Steele said it would cost between $2,000 and $6,000 per year per person for rehabilitation or mental health treatment.
Steele advocated for further reforms in the state, connecting individuals with appropriate mental health or substance abuse treatment, providing appropriate levels of community supervision and requiring that individuals pay restitution for damages they may have caused within their community.
The initiative’s data accounts for state prisons, local jails, federal prisoners and other systems of confinement.
Asked about the state’s change in status, Kevin Buchanan, president of the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council, questioned the Prison Policy Initiative Policy’s methodology.
Buchanan, who is also the district attorney for Nowata and Washington counties, said state officials also consider out-of-custody supervision as incarcerated individuals.
Steele said about three-quarters of the state’s prison population were committed for nonviolent offenses. Buchanan cautioned how that phrase is used.
“Where I disagree is what constitutes a nonviolent offense or what constitutes an offender who is amenable to reform,” Buchanan said. “Not everybody wants to reform.”
In his district, Buchanan said he had an offender bond out of jail in 2018 for a nonviolent offense and, within one month, returned with at least two violent offenses. To some offenders, he said, nothing matters more to them than drug addiction.
State Questions 780 and 781 — which went into effect July 1 — reclassified drug possession and certain property crimes as misdemeanors and started a fund intended to use any savings from the reclassification and distribute those funds for rehabilitative programs and mental health treatment.
“In 23 days (July 1), and this is a prediction on my part, we’ll find out we haven’t saved anything,” Buchanan said.
Treatment facilities in his district are limited. The drug court program in Buchanan’s district, administered from his office, has a wait list around 800 long. The recent reforms have “done almost nothing” to provide alternative treatments, tools for which district attorneys yearn, Buchanan said.
The struggle, as witnessed during educators’ protests against abysmal funding, is to fund new programs and treatment facilities.
The initiative’s report also states that Oklahoma incarcerates people at higher rates than all countries with a population of at least 500,000.
Mike Neal, president and CEO of the Tulsa Regional Chamber and member of the Oklahoma Justice Reform Task Force, said in a statement that Oklahoma took steps in the right direction by passing criminal justice reform bills during the latest legislative session.
However, Neal said the new ranking makes it even more imperative that the state continues to prioritize smart-on-crime reforms.
“This sad distinction is an impediment to recruiting businesses and growing the economy, and so is a criminal justice system that emphasizes punishment over rehabilitation and safe reentry into the workforce,” he said. “Our criminal justice policies have limited our labor pool at a time when business and industry clamors for skilled workers, and it’s time to change course for the sake of job growth in Oklahoma.”
The Prison Policy Initiative is a nonprofit organization that seeks to expose the “broader harm of mass criminalization,” according to its website.
