State Rep. Upset Over Lack Of Diversity On Governor's Task Force

One state representative is speaking out against Governor Mary Fallin's new Justice Reform Task Force, saying the original group was not representative of the people they are trying to help.

When the governor released the list of names on her Justice Reform Task Force on Wednesday, Rep. George Young (D-District 99) tells News 9 he was surprised that of 17 people, not one of them was a person of color. He wants to know how they can reach the right solutions when they cannot understand the problems they are trying to solve firsthand.

The group of law enforcers, legislators and community members are studying ways to reduce Oklahoma's incarceration rate, which is the second-highest in the country. Fallin says, “Collectively the task force members have extensive criminal justice experience representing a diverse group of stakeholders.”

Young points out that Fallin's group was diverse in everything except race, which he argues is most important, as a vast majority of inmates are minorities. “If you don’t have folk who have experienced that life,” he says, “then you’re not going to have the full picture of what’s needed.”

The task force is a continuation of the governor's Justice Reform Committee that got 4 bills passed in 2016, aiming to reduce felony convictions by classifying some current felonies as misdemeanors, reducing mandatory sentences for repeat offenders, raising felony property crime thresholds and broadening the oversight of drug courts.

Now she hopes the group can study ways to spend on mental health and substance abuse programs rather than prisons. Fallin says, “We certainly talked about the cost between $19,000 a year to put somebody in prison versus $2,000 for treatment in outpatient programs.”

Young agrees that the state needs to stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on the prison system. That is why he joined the community group Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform back in January. That group created two ballot initiatives for November, SQ 780 and SQ 781, specifically raising felony drug possession thresholds to $1,000 in addition to property crimes and spending the extra money on rehabilitative programs.

He says he did not quite understand the point of an additional task force, but wished the governor would re-think its members. “All this does is causes some discussion that we don’t need,” says Young, “and somehow, some way, somebody should have said hey, wait a minute. There’s something missing.”

Young says he is still optimistic about the new task force because he believes that means real change could be coming in the near future.

On Friday afternoon the governor’s office informed News 9 that two African-American delegates had been added to the task force. Public safety commissioner Michael Thompson is now a member, and Irma Newburn will represent the Department of Corrections. The governor’s office notes that original members were chosen from organizations following recommendations by the Crime and Justice Institute and the Pew Charitable Trusts, which are helping the state study criminal justice reform.