© 2024 Public Radio Tulsa
800 South Tucker Drive
Tulsa, OK 74104
(918) 631-2577

A listener-supported service of The University of Tulsa
classical 88.7 | public radio 89.5
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Tulsa Leaders Want to Deal With Oklahoma's Notoriously High Female Incarceration Rate

City of Tulsa

Oklahoma’s world-leading female incarceration rate is a problem 20 years in the making, but Tulsa community leaders are ready to tackle it.

They gathered Friday at a public safety summit, the last hosted by Mayor Dewey Bartlett.

There’s consensus on the underlying factors: childhood trauma leads to addiction later in life, and women enter the criminal justice system as nonviolent drug offenders. Family and Children’s Services CEO Gail Lapidus says the problems to address are harsh sentences left over from the federal war on drugs and a lack of mental health and substance abuse services.

"Without addressing that at the same time, there's not going to be, you know, alternative avenues for people to get well, because underneath it all, we have a pretty strong drug culture and we have a very high trauma culture here," Lapidus said. "And those two just sort of tie up together."

Tulsa County is the only one in Oklahoma to see a decrease in female incarceration. Speakers at the public safety summit said that’s thanks to local diversion and treatment programs for women battling addiction.

Kimberly Cummings avoided 10 years in prison for a drug offense by completing the Women in Recovery program in 2010. Today, she’s co-director of a nonprofit, earning her master’s and raising three kids.

"There's hundreds of stories showing the success of what can happen when you allow an individual the opportunity to be treated and offer them rehabilitation and restoration," Cummings said. "Just a minimal amount of support, because we'll do most of the work on our own and you will get a return on your investment."

Lapidus, Cummings and other speakers called on state lawmakers to lessen harsh penalties for nonviolent drug offenders and offer more treatment and diversion programs.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.