House Bill 1269 set to downgrade possession felonies
State question 780 passed in 2016, making simple drug possession and property crimes less than $1000 misdemeanors instead of felonies. Once the legislation passed, it left lawmakers scrambling to figure out how to deal with the multitudes of people who are currently incarcerated for felony possession.
Thus, House Bill 1269 was born. The bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Jason Dunnington (D-Oklahoma City) and Sen. Stephanie Bice (R-Oklahoma City).
The bill passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives by a vote of 76 to 22 and passed the Oklahoma Senate 34 to 11.
The Executive Director of State Pardon and Parole Board Steve Bickley said that typically getting the charge downgraded is a two-step process.
First, the inmate fills out an application and sends it to the board, requesting for the downgrade.
Then, the District Attorney is notified, along with any victims – if there were any. Then, stage two is when the board discusses to see if they believe the reason is valid enough.
If everything goes smooth, and there are no objections, the process can take at least six months.
House Bill 1269 speeds up the process. It accelerates the two-stage process into a single step.
The State Pardon and Parole Board then takes out the ones they need to discuss further and vote en masse for the cut and dry cases.
The Executive Director of State Pardon and Parole Board Steve Bickley said there will be quite a large amount of people who will able to hug their loved ones after November 1.
“There are 798 inmates who are in for possession and 99 for property crimes who are eligible,” Bickley said.
Obviously, if the inmate is serving concurrent jail time for other crimes, especially violent ones, they will not be included, Bickley said.
Bickley said the current roster is too wide of a spectrum for inmates. Basically, putting all people convicted of possession on one category.
“Housing non-violent, low level inmates is not a good use of the tax dollar,” he said. “The sooner we get them out, the better.”
Bickley said Criminal Justice reform has a long way to go, but this is a great start.
“This is Criminal Justice reform at work,” he stated, “of course, it has a long way to go, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
Releasing almost 1,000 inmates is also a good start to easing the overcrowding in the prison system in Oklahoma.