OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma lawmakers on Monday were told resources for jail diversion programs are less available for rural counties in comparison to major cities in the state.The Oklahoma House Criminal Justice and Corrections committee hosted an interim study on county jail services and diversion programs. Spokespeople from various criminal justice and diversion programs told lawmakers that diversion programs are a cheaper alternative to incarceration, reduce the number of people in jails and lower recidivism rates. Diversion programs aim to redirect defendants from being incarcerated and from moving through the formal justice system by completing a program or paying fees to avoid conviction or a criminal record.Michael Olson, Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform policy counsel, said while violent crime is down overall in Oklahoma, there has been a rise in crime in rural areas that don’t have the same kind of access to diversion resources as cities like Tulsa or Oklahoma City.“There are not a lot of resources in these (rural) areas and because of that, law enforcement uses the criminal justice system as a way to deal with mental health and substance issues,” Olson said. “And I’m not sitting up here to blame law enforcement because they’re using the tools they have been given, and the tools that are given are jails.”Damion Shade is the Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform executive director.“Oklahoma faces a mental health crisis, particularly in rural Oklahoma, that we have converted into an incarceration crisis with decades of bad policy,” Shade said.He told lawmakers he sees two systems of justice in Oklahoma, with rural counties having less resources to keep people out of jails and prisons for the same crimes someone in a metropolitan area could avoid being incarcerated for through diversion programs.“I think it’s important for leaders of the rural caucus and the rural communities to speak loudly for your constituents and say there should not be a two-tiered system of justice,” Shade said.Recommendations from the speakers included investing in treatment courts and services, improving jail data collection, implementing universal intake screening and increasing diversion services.“I believe there is a sweet spot in Oklahoma politics where liberals and conservatives can agree on alternatives to a system that could be fair, more humane and more efficient and less expensive to taxpayers,” said Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa.Brittany Hayes, policy director for Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, a nonpartisan policy and behavioral health group, told lawmakers that Oklahoma ...
