Oklahoma lawmakers will pick back up work on criminal justice reform this week.
Several measures made it from the Senate to the House before the deadline for bills to advance from their chamber of origin. Senate Bill 421 would define what constitutes drug possession with intent to distribute.
Sen. Stephanie Bice said since possession was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, possession with intent to distribute filings are up 20 percent.
"Many of these cases are occurring in six of the state’s 27 DA districts, and we feel like that part of the reason is there is no clear definition of what PWID is," Bice said.
Under the bill, if someone has less than four grams of a drug, prosecutors must show at least three of seven other circumstances are met to charge them with intent to distribute.
Senate Bill 616 would limit parole revocations.
"It limits revocation to one of three situations, and those are a new crime, violation of sex offender rules, absconds from parole – and that’s defined as failure to initially report or failure to report after 90 days," said Sen. Darcy Jech. "Normal violations of rules and conditions of parole will be handled with intermediate sanctions."
SB616 also bars the practice of inmates waiving parole, which Jech said around two-thirds do so they don’t leave prison under supervision.
Senate Bill 618 deals with court costs, fines, and fees, including charges for being on probation or parole.
"The bill gives the court some discretion to address those costs based on such things as the offender’s ability to pay. Many times, offenders leave prison and are faced with a large accumulation of debt," Jech said.
courts would also have to determine whether defendants are willfully refusing to pay a fine or are facing a hardship before punishing them for nonpayment.
