How can it possibly be that Oklahoma, our beautiful land of the free, has the highest incarceration rate of women of any state in the United States of America?
Because the United States of America has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, it means that Oklahoma imprisons more women per capita than any other country, including Russia, China, North Korea and Iran?
All Oklahomans, including especially our good and well-meaning District Attorneys, police officers, Judges, and political leaders, should be struggling with the questions of WHY and HOW did this happen and WHAT needs to be done. Why are we incarcerating our Oklahoma women at three times the national average?
Unless we believe that Oklahoma women are the worst and most criminal women of any state or other country, we must admit that our criminal justice system has not worked and badly needs reform.
Why are we spending over half a billion dollars per year on our prison system, over $16,000.00 per prisoner, especially non-violent offenders, when we could be using part of that same money on education and rehabilitation, drug abuse and mental health programs and the other part saving tax dollars?
Let’s analyze and weigh the arguments against State Question 805. Opponents argue that we should not amend the Oklahoma Constitution. If the Oklahoma Constitution were similar to the United States Constitution, I would agree but there are huge historical factual differences. Our United States Constitution passed in 1787 and our Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments, passed in 1791, are beautiful and almost sacred documents containing only five hand-written pages which has only been amended 27 times in 229 years.
In comparison, the Oklahoma Constitution passed in 1907 contained 229 pages and literally had specific provisions regulating kerosene and has been amended over 150 times in 113 years.
Unlike the United States Constitution which had the high requirements to be amended by two-thirds majority vote in the Senate and ratified by three-fourths of the states, the Oklahoma Constitution was designed from the beginning to be easily amended without any approval of the legislature by giving the power to amend directly to the will of the people by simple majority vote (Article V, Sections 1 and 2).
This tremendous power granted directly to the people by the Oklahoma Constitution is why we have had over 800 State questions to amend the Oklahoma Constitution. Because of the huge differences between the Oklahoma Constitution and the United States Constitution, the con stitutional argument fails and is not a valid reason to vote against State Question 805.
Opponents argue that State Question 805 does not go far enough to address other problems and reforms and that these matters can be better addressed by statutory legislation. The first response is that these matters could have been but have not been addressed by the legislature and in the meantime, Oklahoma has had the highest incarceration of women for 25 years.
How much longer will Oklahoma women and men sentenced to unreasonably and inhumanely long years for non-violent crimes have to wait for legislative prison reform to be released? And why can we not do both? Let’s pass State Question 805 and then go to work on urging our legislators and Governor to pass other statutory criminal justice reforms?
If we can unite to pass State Question 805, we will be sending a message to our legislators and political leaders that “We, the People” do not want the highest incarceration rate of our women and men in the World and we do not want to waste millions of tax payers dollars on prisons. If we fail to pass State Question 805, what will our message be?
Let’s unite to pass State Question 805, one small step in the right direction, and then keep walking and running to do so much more to improve our criminal justice system and our education system to make Oklahoma the safest and best place to live and to be “our beautiful land of the Free”. Let us all, conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, join together to support and to vote for State Question 805.
Growing up on a ranch near the small town of Madill, Oklahoma, Dan Little attended public schools through the eighth grade and then attended Thomas Jefferson Preparatory School in St. Louis, Mo, Harvard University and the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Dan has practiced law for 50 years and is the senior partner of the Little Law Firm, PLLC in Madill and Ardmore, Oklahoma. In addition to his law practice, Dan also operates multiple family businesses.
Dan has been involved in Oklahoma education as a Regent at the University of Oklahoma and the first and only Chairman of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics for 34 years. He has also served on both the Oklahoma Higher Education Task Force of Oklahoma in 1985 and 2018; Director and Co-Founder of the Madill Public School Foundation for Excellence; member of the Sarkeys Energy Center Board at the University of Oklahoma; lifetime member of the Sarkeys Foundation; Board member for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation; board member and President of the Jack Little Foundation, the Sid and Jane Willis Foundation, and the Walter and Ila Jagers Foundation; Co-Founder and Director of the Reuel Little Classic, National Sand Bass Festival Run, and the DanMan Challenge Run in Madill, Oklahoma.