News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed
Aging Prison Population Strains Corrections Budget
Picture a prison yard in a Hollywood blockbuster.
There’s a fenced-in field where young men lift weights and play basketball on a hot summer day. Correctional officers look on from a guard tower ready to sniff out any disturbance.
In Oklahoma, a more accurate image might be a group of gray-haired men standing in a pill line or a dialysis patient struggling to get out of bed and use the restroom.
Nearly one in six Oklahoma prisoners was 55 or older as of Dec. 31, according to Department of Corrections data. While the state has made progress in reducing its overall prison population, this demographic of aging inmates has doubled since 2009 and almost quadrupled since 2000.
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The elderly population, which is more prone to chronic health conditions than the general public, is stretching the state’s corrections budget and prompting officials to rethink core healthcare functions like medication delivery and medical appointment scheduling. Criminal justice reform advocates say there are methods to safely reduce the aging population, including requiring parole boards to consider a person’s age and health as a mitigating factor and making the post-release placement process more efficient.
The Department of Corrections allocated $111 million for health services in its Fiscal Year 2025 budget, a 91% increase from the $58 million spent in 2015. Total state appropriations to the agency have increased about 15% over the past decade.
The Legislature has also boosted funding to the University Hospitals Authority, which provides care to prisoners needing surgery or specialized care. The agency allocated $177.3 million, more than half of its total budget, to indigent and inmate care in FY 2025.
In a January budget presentation, Department of Corrections Executive Director Stephen Harpe cited the aging population as one of the agency’s greatest challenges. He said officials will likely have to purchase a long-term care facility or convert existing space into a hardened medical unit to accommodate prisoners with chronic illnesses.
The agency’s goals for 2025 include expanding telehealth capability to reduce medical transports and contracting with an off-site pharmacy to pre-package medication and deliver it directly to prisoners. The agency spends nearly $2 million per month on prescription drugs for approximately 19,000 prisoners.
“Care has gone up,” Harpe said, citing nurse recruitment efforts. “We’re able to see more people and have more appointments, and we measure all of those things. At the end of the day, it’s still difficult.”
Legislative reforms aren’t working
The Legislature has considered several proposals over the past decade to reduce the aging prison population. House Bill 2286, passed in 2018, authorized prisoners 60 or older convicted of nonviolent offenses to request parole after serving 10 years or one-third of their sentence. Three years later lawmakers enacted Senate Bill 320, which expanded the criteria for medical parole.
The reforms have not translated to higher parole grant rates. Oklahoma Watch reported earlier this month that only six prisoners have been granted medical parole since Senate Bill 320 took effect in November 2021. About one in five prisoners convicted of a violent offense advanced past stage one of a two-part parole hearing in 2024.
Nicole Porter, the senior director of advocacy at The Sentencing Project, said there are several reasons why expanding eligibility isn’t a catch-all solution. Appointed parole board members often face external pressure to not grant or recommend release to perceived public safety threats. The application process can be cumbersome without the help of an attorney or nonprofit group.
Some states have tried to spur action by streamlining the residential placement process or requiring parole board members to assume that elderly or medically frail prisoners are not dangerous unless proven otherwise. Numerous studies have found that recidivism tends to decline as people age.
“There’s some uncertainty right now, but given certain trends around declining state budgets and this increased aging population, maybe those circumstances will come together and create the conditions for lawmakers to think seriously about what should happen,” Porter said.
Parole candidate ‘not the kid I was at 18’
At age 19, Michael Gibson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole in 1969. He appeared on the Pardon and Parole Board’s docket 51 years later in November 2020 after completing an 18-month peer recovery support program.
More than 50 people, including two former Pardon and Parole Board members and two former wardens at the Joseph Harp Correctional Center, submitted letters of support for the 70-year-old’s release. His sole misconduct in the 21st century was for putting a piece of cardboard in a cell door in 2012.
“Today I am almost 70 years old, and not the kid I was at 18,” Gibson wrote to the board. “I feel sure that I have matured to the point that I am an excellent candidate for parole or commutation, as do many others who know me best.”
The board declined to advance Gibson to a more comprehensive stage two hearing. He died at a hospital in Oklahoma City on Wednesday after battling a terminal illness.
“If you can’t get that man through stage one, you’re going to have these old people in prison forever,” said Sue Hinton, a retired journalism professor and criminal justice reform advocate who regularly attends Pardon and Parole Board hearings.
Hinton said parole board members are much more likely to recommend release if they speak directly with a prisoner or their designee, but that doesn’t always happen. The stage one hearing for prisoners convicted of a violent offense consists only of an initial application review. Those who are denied must wait three to five years to reapply.
“I think we have some fine people on the parole board, but we’re asking a lot of them for very little pay,” she said.
One bill moving through the Legislature, House Bill 1968 by Danny Williams, R-Seminole, would establish a full-time Pardon and Parole Board with three alternate members. Board members are currently classified as part-time state employees and expected to work an average of 10 hours per week. The proposal, which has a March 27 deadline to advance off the House floor, would cost about $673,000 per year to implement.
During an Oct. 29 interim study on sentencing reform, Williams said lawmakers can and should do more to spur the release of elderly and medically vulnerable prisoners.
“It doesn’t make any sense to keep really sick people that aren’t dangerous,” Williams said.
This article first appeared on Oklahoma Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
The post Aging Prison Population Strains Corrections Budget appeared first on oklahomawatch.org
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed
Family sues Roblox, accusing them of failing to protect kids from predators
SUMMARY: An Oklahoma family is suing Roblox, accusing the popular gaming platform of failing to protect children from predators. The suit centers on a 12-year-old girl allegedly groomed and sexually extorted by a man posing as a 15-year-old boy. According to court documents, the predator coerced the girl into sending explicit photos, threatened to kill her family, and manipulated her using Roblox’s digital currency. The family claims Roblox is a “hunting ground for child predators” and profits from these dangers. Roblox states it has safeguards and recently announced plans to better detect risks. The lawsuit does not specify damages sought.
Family sues Roblox, accusing them of failing to protect kids from predators
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News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed
Thousands of State Employees Still Working Remotely
More than 8,500 state employees are working remotely at least some of the time, with the arrangement mostly from a lack of space at agencies.
The Office of Management and Enterprise Services compiled the latest numbers after a December executive order issued by Gov. Kevin Stitt mandating a return to the office for state employees.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality went in opposite directions on remote work in the second quarter report. Just 12% of employees at the Corporation Commission were on remote work in the first quarter. That jumped to 59% in the second quarter. The agency has relocated as its longtime office, the Jim Thorpe Building, undergoes renovations.
Brandy Wreath, director of administration for the Corporation Commission, said the agency has a handful of experienced employees in its public utility division who work out of state and were hired on a telework basis. Some other employees are working remotely because of doctor’s orders limiting their interactions. The agency got rid of space and offices in the Jim Thorpe Building before the renovations started. The building project is expected to be completed in the next six months.
“At Jim Thorpe, we were right-sized for everyone to be in the office,” Wreath said. “Whenever we moved to Will Rogers, we are in temporary space, and we don’t have enough space for everyone to be in every day.”
Wreath said the Corporation Commission uses the state’s Workday system that has codes for employees to use when they are logged in and working remotely. Employees also know they are subject to random activity audits.
“We’re supportive of the idea of having employees in the workplace and willing to serve,” Wreath said. “We also realize the value of having employees in rural Oklahoma and still being a part of the state structure. Our goal is to make sure our employees are productive, no matter where they are working. We are supportive of return-to-office, and we are utilizing the tools OMES has given us to ensure the state is getting its money’s worth.”
The Department of Environmental Quality now has just 1% of its employees working remotely. That’s down from 30% in the first quarter. Spokeswoman Erin Hatfield said the agency, with 527 employees, is in full compliance with the executive order. Seven employees are on telework, with all but one on temporary telework status as they recover from medical issues.
There are three exceptions to the return-to-office policy: employees whose hours are outside normal business hours; employees who already work in the field; and when new or additional office space would have to be acquired at additional cost.
The Department of Human Services continued to have more than 80% of its 6,060 employees on some type of telework, according to the second quarter report. The agency said those numbers stemmed mostly from a lack of available office space. DHS closed dozens of county offices or found other agency office space for its employees to use in the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was a huge shift to remote work.
The latest telework report covers 29,250 of the state’s 31,797 employees. About 30% of employees were on some version of telework in the second quarter. Dozens of agencies did not submit quarterly reports to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.
Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies.
Related
The post Thousands of State Employees Still Working Remotely appeared first on oklahomawatch.org
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This content provides a fact-based report on the remote work status of Oklahoma state employees following an executive order from Governor Kevin Stitt. It presents information from multiple state agencies with no apparent favor or criticism of the executive order or political figures involved. The tone is neutral and focuses on the practical reasons and outcomes of remote work policies, reflecting a balanced approach without clear ideological leanings.
News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed
Test taker finds it's impossible to fail 'woke' teacher assessment
SUMMARY: Oklahoma’s “America First” teacher qualification test aims to weed out “woke” educators from states like California and New York, focusing on civics, parental rights, and biology. However, many find it nearly impossible to fail. Test-takers, including independent publisher Ashley, report multiple attempts allowed per question, enabling passing regardless of knowing answers, often by guessing until correct. Average Oklahomans tested struggled with the questions, highlighting the test’s difficulty and questionable effectiveness. Critics say the test’s ease defeats its purpose of ensuring teacher knowledge. The state superintendent’s office was contacted for comment but had yet to respond.
Test taker finds it’s impossible to fail ‘woke’ teacher assessment
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