Oklahoma voters last night approved two criminal justice reform bills intended to alleviate jail overcrowding and to prevent unnecessarily harsh penalties for nonviolent crimes.
The two state questions pertaining to criminal justice reform were SQ 780, which would reduce some drug possession and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and SQ 781, which would help fund community rehabilitation programs with the money saved if SQ 780 were to pass.
Oklahomans voted to pass SQ 780 with nearly 70% in favor of the proposition and approximately 30% opposed. The companion question, SQ 781, passed 66.42% to 33.58%.
Previously in Oklahoma, simple drug possession, which means the possession of a drug for personal use rather than for distribution, sale, or trafficking, has been designated a felony drug crime (marijuana possession was a misdemeanor on the first offense but a felony for subsequent offenses). With the approval of the state question, drug possession now becomes a misdemeanor.
Additionally, certain property crimes are reduced from felonies to misdemeanors under this law. Previously, property crimes including larceny and grand larceny, forgery, bogus checks, false declaration to a pawn broker, poaching, receiving or concealing stolen property, and fraud were prosecuted as felonies if the value of the property involved was $500 or greater. New law raises the threshold from $500 to $1,000 for felony prosecution.
Many of these issues were already addressed when the state legislature passed HB 2751; however, SQ 781, intended to divert saved funds into rehabilitation services, hinged up on the approval of SQ 780.
According to Ballotpedia.org, "State Question 781 was designed to allocate the funds made available by the prison cost savings to counties in proportion to their population and could be claimed by privately-run rehabilitative organizations that provide drug and mental health treatment, job training, and education programs."
Continuing to increase Oklahoma's incarceration rate has done nothing to deter crime, reduce substance abuse, or provide rehabilitation for those in the criminal justice system. Hopefully, voters are now taking a "smart on crime" approach that will benefit all Oklahomans.
