“We can be just as tough and twice as smart on crime.”
The former Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Delegates says that is the stance members of West Virginia’s Legislature should take as prison reforms are considered during the 2013 Regular Legislative Session.
Former Speaker Kris Steele was at the State Capitol on Thursday to talk with West Virginia’s lawmakers about steps their counterparts in Oklahoma have already taken to reduce the prison population by focusing more on substance abuse treatment.
“We got very serious about implementing significant and meaningful supervision for our nonviolent offenders who are back in our communities,” Steele said.
He says they had to do something in Oklahoma.
In the past ten years, Steele says appropriations for Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections increased by 34%, the state’s prisons are at 99.3% capacity and Oklahoma leads the nation in female incarceration and is near the top of the list for male incarceration.
For help, Oklahoma’s lawmakers turned to those with the Council of State Governments Justice Center, the group that has also issued a comprehensive report on prison overcrowding in West Virginia which is serving as a reference for legislators.
“There’s no doubt that individuals exist that need to be incarcerated, people who are truly dangerous to society or a threat to public safety, but that’s not everyone and, for our nonviolent offenders, we can do better,” Steele said.
Such investments in support and treatment, he says, would lead to cost savings in the future.
“We can provide services in the community and actually follow through and reduce recidivism, reduce the person’s chances of reoffending, produce a better result with less resources and, to me, that’s what being a fiscal conservative is all about,” he said.
Steele, a Republican, left the Oklahoma House of Delegates last year after reaching the 12 year limit the state has on legislative terms and is now the Executive Director of The Education and Employment Ministry.