Oklahomans continue pushing for legislation to lower the state’s prison population and prevent people from entering into the criminal system in the first place. Last year, Oklahoma saw the largest mass commutation in the nation’s history with nearly 500 people being released early from prisons in November. Damion Shade, Oklahoma Policy Institute criminal justice policy […]
State Question 780
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Chicken-Fried News: Broken justice
Remember in 2016 when Oklahoma overwhelmingly voted in favor of State Question 780, which allows the more than 60,000 Oklahomans convicted of simple drug possession to seek parole and expunge felony drug possession? It wasn’t until 2019 that Gov. Kevin Stitt retroactively signed the state question into law. The state district attorney’s association and local […]
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Retroactive law
Nearly a thousand Oklahomans will be released from prison early — potentially in time for the holidays. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law that makes State Question 780, which reclassified simple drug possessions from felonies to misdemeanors, retroactive. Department of Corrections (DOC) must provide a list of eligible inmates to the Pardon and […]
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Labor pains
Twenty-six-year-old Kayla Jo Jeffries remembers the night she gave birth to her now 2-year-old daughter, Emersyn, the way most women do — as if it were yesterday. Her experience might have been memorable, she said, but it wasn’t enjoyable. Her partner wasn’t holding her hand, and the waiting room outside wasn’t filled with adoring family […]
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Advocacy alert
After spending nearly a year campaigning on the effects of tough-on-crime policies that have packed the state’s prisons and jails to the bursting point, largely with Oklahomans suffering from addiction and mental health problems, Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) leaders felt confident that the two ballot measures they put before state voters in the […]
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Chicken-Fried News: Rule rollback?
An Oklahoma senator wants to put two bills on hold because he thinks voters didn’t know what they were voting for.
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Cover Story: Chicken-Fried News year in review and predictions for 2017
CFN looks back on 2016 and makes predictions about what Okies will get up to in 2017.
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Commentary: State questions require voter diligence
Oklahoma’s state questions affect our everyday lives and must be carefully considered before Election Day.
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Chicken-Fried News: Felonious pharmaceuticals
A proposed state question might help relieve some of the pressure on Oklahoma’s prison system, but not everyone is for it.
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Community forum addresses mass incarceration rates
Local interest groups and officials agree that something must be done to fix Oklahoma’s criminal justice system.