CJI has worked with Oklahoma’s justice systems since 2016, with the governor’s office, the legislature, the courts, and two state task forces. The work has covered sentencing and corrections policy through two Justice Reinvestment processes, analysis of jail populations across the state and in Oklahoma County, and measurement of how the 2017 and 2018 legislation worked in practice. 

What CJI is tracking now

Oklahoma’s Legislative Session: Prison and Jail Population Trends

After years of declining crime rates and decreasing use of incarceration, Oklahoma’s prison population is rising again. The data suggest the drivers are system factors — supervision revocations, declining releases, longer prison stays, and increasingly lengthy jail stays.

CJI is currently analyzing Oklahoma’s prison and jail population trends: Read the analysis 

At a glance

  • Years: 2016–present 
  • Worked with: the governor’s office, the legislature, the Administrative Office of the Courts, the Oklahoma Justice Reform Task Force, the MODERN Justice Task Force, and Oklahoma County’s Criminal Justice Advisory Council 
  • Where: Statewide, and Oklahoma County 
  • Areas: Justice Reinvestment, sentencing and corrections, jails and pretrial detention, county justice systems 
  • What the data show: From 2016 to 2022, Oklahoma’s prison population and crime rates declined steadily. The prison population began to slowly rise in 2023, yet the crime rates have continued to decline. 

Jails and county justice systems

Oklahoma’s state and local leaders have looked at why jail populations stay high even as bookings fall. In August 2022, the governor, Senate president pro tempore, House speaker, and Administrative Office of the Courts asked CJI to support a second Justice Reinvestment process focused on jails. Data from six counties showed jail bookings fell from 2018 to 2022 while average stays grew longer: about 4 days in urban jails, 5 in midsize jails, and 20 in rural jails. Separately, CJI assessed Oklahoma County’s progress on its jail population goals. 

  • Policy analysis, 2022–2024: Provided facilitation, administrative support, and data analysis to the MODERN Justice Task Force, which launched in July 2023 and released 15 recommendations in February 2024. The recommendations covered behavioral health treatment, alternatives to arrest and incarceration, court processes, and pretrial detention. The work was funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, with support from Arnold Ventures and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Read about CJI’s role in the task force. 
  • Outcome measurement: At the request of Oklahoma County’s Criminal Justice Advisory Council, CJI spent a year analyzing county data on progress toward the county’s earlier jail recommendations. The council’s progress report found the county had met its goal of reducing jail overcrowding. It made 12 more recommendations on the pretrial population, system inefficiencies, and racial disparities in the jail. 

Key publications: MODERN Justice Task Force report (task force report, February 2024),  Oklahoma County’s progress report: Reducing the jail population and promoting public safety (progress report, 2025)

Sentencing and corrections: Justice Reinvestment 

In 2016, Oklahoma had the second-highest imprisonment rate in the country and the highest for women, and its prison population was projected to grow 25 percent over the following decade — growth that would have required three new prisons and an additional $1.9 billion in capital and operating costs over ten years. In May 2016, Governor Mary Fallin, Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, Speaker Jeff Hickman, Presiding Judge Clancy Smith of the Court of Criminal Appeals, Administrative Director Jari Askins of the Administrative Office of the Courts, and Director Joe Allbaugh of the Department of Corrections requested technical assistance through the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. That July, the governor established the bipartisan, inter-branch Oklahoma Justice Reform Task Force.

CJI and The Pew Charitable Trusts provided technical assistance to the task force, with funding from Pew and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, then supported state leaders through the 2017 and 2018 legislation. CJI later measured how five of those policies worked in practice. It found that the policies’ effects depended more on how they were funded and carried out than on how they were written.

  • Policy analysis, 2016–2017: Analyzed sentencing and corrections data for the task force over seven months. The analysis found that prison population growth between FY 2011 and FY 2015 was driven by admissions for nonviolent offenses, longer stays for drug and property offenses, and limited parole approvals — in FY 2015, fewer than 10 percent of people released were paroled. The task force released 27 recommendations in February 2017. Read about the task force’s launch, and see Oklahoma’s Justice Reinvestment record.
  • Policy analysis, 2017–2018: Supported state leaders as the legislature passed 10 bills between May 2017 and April 2018, carrying more than a dozen of the task force’s recommendations. The bills expanded access to alternatives to incarceration (SB 689), adjusted sentences for drug and property offenses (SB 793, HB 2281, SB 786), differentiated sentence enhancements by prior offense type (SB 649), created administrative parole for people convicted of nonviolent offenses (HB 2286), and required risk and needs assessments and individualized case plans for everyone entering prison (SB 603). The package was projected to avert 67 percent of the anticipated growth in the prison population, avoiding the need for 4,800 additional prison beds. 
  • Outcome measurement, 2016–2026: With support from Arnold Ventures, analyzed ten years of federal and state data and interviewed judges, attorneys, law enforcement, corrections staff, parole board members, and people directly affected. Burglary rates fell 44% as burglary sentencing changed. Administrative parole cut the time from eligibility to release by 68%. Alternatives to incarceration changed little until the legislature funded them. 

Key publications: From policy to practice: Oklahoma’s 2017 legislation (report, September 2026), Oklahoma’s 2018 policy solutions (report, October 2018) 

What Oklahoma has seen since. The state’s prison population fell 21 percent between 2017 and 2022, from 28,382 to 22,441. The number of people incarcerated for drug offenses fell 62 percent between FY 2016 and FY 2021, and for property offenses 43 percent. Admissions for probation and parole revocations fell 54 percent between FY 2017 and FY 2021. The Pardon and Parole Board granted administrative parole to 706 people in 2020 and 2021. These changes coincided with State Question 780, approved by voters in 2016, which reclassified simple drug possession and some low-level property offenses as misdemeanors and raised the felony theft threshold — so the effect of any single policy cannot be isolated.

What remains open. The task force recommended ongoing oversight of the enacted policies, including data collection and analysis of performance measures, and a reentry and recidivism reduction fund. SB 911 (2018), which would have created a standing body to assess outcomes and report to state leadership, did not pass. Oklahoma has not documented savings from the bill package or published a plan to reinvest them. The measurable effect of three further policies is also unclear: expungement opportunities under SB 650 have not expanded, and there is little data on the training requirements created by SB 604 and HB 2284.

Key publications: Oklahoma Justice Reinvestment Initiative (state assessment brief, April 2024); From policy to practice: Oklahoma’s 2017 legislation (report, September 2026); Oklahoma’s 2018 policy solutions (report, October 2018)

Legislative sessions 

  • 2024–2025 sessions: Jails and county justice systems. The MODERN Justice Task Force sent 15 recommendations to state leaders in February 2024. Legislators filed bills based on them, including SB1711 (enacted in April 2024), which authorized video conferencing for arraignments when an individuals was housed in a different county than the committing offense to reduce court delays . Read the task force’s recommendations. 
  • 2018 session: Justice Reinvestment. The legislature passed seven bills covering alternatives to incarceration, sentences for nonviolent offenses, release for people who pose no public safety risk, sentences matched to levels of conduct, and reentry. The governor signed them in April 2018. Read CJI’s coverage of the bills’ passage and its report on the 2018 legislation. 
  • 2017 session: Justice Reinvestment. The legislature passed the first bills based on the task force’s recommendations, including changes to burglary sentencing and the parole process. Read CJI’s 2026 analysis of how they worked in practice . 

Publications

See all CJI publications on Oklahoma 

Related national analysis 

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