Our Criminal and Juvenile Justice Projects

We've convened a group of experts across the state to study systemic reforms that will reduce the list of people waiting for competency restoration services in Oklahoma's jails. These folks are mentally ill and trapped in legal purgatory. The solutions are complex and it will take a system wide approach to help them.

Read more about our multi-pronged effort--including our true-crime-advocacy podcast, Panic Button--to support survivors of domestic and sexual violence who are serving time in Oklahoma prisons.

We're partnering with CREOKS, the Tulsa County Juvenile Bureau, the Tulsa County Public Defender's Office, and the Tulsa County Juvenile Court to deliver free Functional Family Therapy to juveniles on the delinquency docket. 

Oklahoma has some of the longest sentences in the country. This is due to our archaic criminal code and sentence enhancement statutes for people with prior crimes. Excessive sentences don't deter crime, which is why we need sentencing reform.

Our report, The Forgotten Machine: The Cost of Misdemeanor Enforcement in Oklahoma and Recommendations for Systemic Reforms is live now. It's already shaking things up at the state and county level, allowing us to study the issue in greater depth.

The war on drugs has had a huge cost to communities of color across the country and state and allowed for disparate sentencing in both the federal and state systems. We're partnering with the University of Tulsa, The Weldon Project, the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law Institute for Justice, the National Cannabis Roundtable, and more to allow pro bono attorneys and law students to complete clemency applications for people serving federal time on cannabis and other cases stemming from the racialized enforcement of the drug war.