State Question 780 News Today

This year our state Legislature has put forth a bill that would improve the outcomes of SQ 781 even more.

Oklahoma voters sent a message in 2016: Stop sending people to prison on minor drug and property crimes and direct the money saved to counties for drug and mental health treatment. State lawmakers still haven’t gotten to the second half of that.

The pandemic has brought to the forefront the importance of addressing mental health and ensuring increased access to care for Oklahomans in need.

Quinton Chandler / StateImpact Oklahoma Oklahoma has made some big changes to its justice system in recent years. Activists and lawmakers proposed big picture reforms and some of the suggestions succeeded. Voters decided to give more lenient sentences to people convicted of drug possession and certain low level property crimes in 2016. Lawmakers extended those benefits to some people convicted of the same crimes before the law changed. Lawmakers also made granting state prisoners parole eas...