The Oklahoma House gave final passage Wednesday to a bill increasing a fee on criminal and traffic fines.
Senate Bill 38 increases the Forensic Science Improvement Assessment from $5 to $10. The money goes to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Rep. Cory Williams said such fee increases contradict criminal justice reform efforts.
"When you add them one at a time, the first one isn't a problem. The fifth one? Probably not a problem," Williams said. "But when you keep going and you've got two and a half pages, I can tell you why we incarcerate more people than Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado."
Rep. Shane Stone agreed, saying poor people get trapped by higher fees and are incarcerated longer as a result.
"The more time that somebody spends in — whether it's a jail or a prison — the more likely they are to go back there," Stone said. "And this bill makes it more likely that they will spend more time, which means they will go back, and once they go back, they'll be spending more time, which just makes it more likely that, again, they'll go back, increasing our recidivism rates."
Rep. Kevin Wallace said the funding will help OSBI address critical needs, including hiring fingerprint techs, buying cell phone data recovery software and improving DNA processing.
"This fund is designed and set up to do the investigations, the processing, the arrest of criminals. It's been stated unless you're breaking the law, you'll never even have to pay this fee," Wallace said.
SB38 awaits Gov. Mary Fallin's signature.
