Our Criminal and Juvenile Justice Projects

As an offshoot of our misdemeanor justice work, we evaluated and validated the outcomes for the Oklahoma County Misdemeanor Diversion Program administered by the Diversion Hub.

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'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.

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.