Earlier this year, the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council tasked the Criminal Justice Institute, a leading national nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization, with analyzing Oklahoma County’s effectiveness in improving our criminal justice system.
This study comes seven years after the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber invited The Vera Institute of Justice to conduct an audit of the county’s justice system and jail. Today, CJI’s analysis highlights how our county has or hasn’t successfully followed the Vera Institute’s recommendations. One major takeaway: Diversion programs work, benefiting local economies and the workforce.
The county jail population decreased by a remarkable 44% between 2015 and 2022. According to data collected by CJI, a key driver of the population decline was our justice system’s increased access to and use of diversion programs.
Organizations like Diversion Hub, TEEM, ReMerge and Oklahoma County Treatment Courts have collaborated with Oklahoma County’s court system and mental health, substance abuse and employment support services to offer low-level, nonviolent offenders an alternative to incarceration. As a result, the Oklahoma County Detention Center has experienced a significant decrease in admissions while Oklahoma County’s workforce has expanded with the emergence of a new hiring pool.
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