Alternative Sentencing Recommended by Oklahoma Sentencing Commission - See Report

Web site location of the report in pdf format:

http://tinyurl.com/m2l77

or see the other report at:
http://tinyurl.com/nx67n

Recommends against incarceration in prison for probation violations, instead recommends utilizing intermediate sanctions, treatment, jail sentencing, and GPS monitoring, and other options, instead of prison.

Findings of the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission (2004) recommendations
to the legislature concerning felony sentencing:
1. Oklahoma's criminal justice system uses probation 40 % less than average, according to a 2002 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

2. Oklahoma spends $2.04/day per offender on parole/probation supervision, half the U.S. average rate of $4.37/day.

3. Community-based supervision programs are more likely to produce positive outcomes for lower risk offenders than prison sentences. Recidivism rates of offenders after 36 months are as follows: 19% for drug court graduates, 35% for standard probation offenders, and 67% for prisoners.
Recidivism rates of offenders (measured as prison incarceration) are as follows: drug court graduates are almost two times or 73% less likely to recidivate than successful standard probation offenders, and drug court graduates are over 4 times or 315.8% less likely to recidivate than released prison inmates.

Recommendations:
Utilize intermediate sanctions for offenders on probation instead of revocation.
Recommends utilizing an administrative process for violations. Says sanctions should be swift and certain. Says Oklahoma spends about $57 million per year on incarceration costs of offenders for technical violations.
Says should use intermediate sanctions to modify behavior and improve compliance such as substance abuse treatment, electronic monitoring and short term jail stints.

Recommends removing the requirement that the District Attorney is the gate-keeper for two or more prior felony convictions for getting into Community Sentencing. States that 85% of all offenders sentenced in 2002 were convicted of non-violent offences.

Split sentences for sex offenders whereby they will be released on supervised probation when released from prison instead of being released without supervision.

Recommends increasing the use of jail sentences for offenders as an intermediate sanction. For felony drug possession Oklahoma uses jail space at about half the national average. State's jail incarceration rate is about 10% less than the national average.