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Analysis of Crime and Conviction Data
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety & Judiciary

April 11, 2001

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Prison Population Trends

1. DOC Inmate Population Projections through FY'09

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Crimes and Convictions

2. Index Crime Rate Trend

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3. Total Arrests Trend

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4. Juvenile Arrests for Violent Crimes Trenf

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5. Drug Arrests Trend

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6. Eight Most Common Felony Convictions

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7. Offenders Sentenced to Prison by Crime

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8. Comparison of Convictions vs. Prison Receptions by Crime Type

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9. Change in Sentences to Prison and to Parole, FY'00 vs. FY'99

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10. Average Sentence Length and Time Served, Oklahoma vs. U.S.

Crime Type U.S. Avg
Prison Sentence
in Years OK Avg
Prison Sentence
in Years U.S. Avg
% of Sentence
Served OK Avg
% of Sentence
Served U.S. Avg
Time Served
in Years OK Avg
Time Served
in Years OK Time
Served as
% of U.S.                 Rape 13.2 22.9 55% 45% 7.3 10.3 142% Robbery 9.7 21.5 46% 49% 4.5 10.5 236% Agg. Assault 6.6 12.2 49% 51% 3.2 6.2 192% Burglary 5.8 14.2 39% 42% 2.3 6.0 264% Drug Possession 4.2 7.4 32% 40% 1.3 3.0 220% Drug Trafficking 5.5 16.4 38% 35% 2.1 5.7 275%
Sources:
U.S. data from Crime and Justice Atlas, U.S. Department of Justice, June 1998
Oklahoma data from DOC Summary of Statistics of Inmate Population, 12/21/00, and
DOC Summary of Time Served Statistics for Prison Releases in 1999, report date 2/4/00


11. Total Receptions and Drug Crime Receptions, 1986 through 2000

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12. Drug Possession Offenders Sent to Prison, by County

Drug Possession Offenders Sent to Prison By County, FY'00 Source: Criminal Justice Resource Center, Statewide Felony Disposition Report, February 2001                                                         County Total Drug Poss. % of Total   County Total Drug Poss. % of Total   County Total Drug Poss. % of Total   Drug Convictions Drug Poss.     Drug Convictions Drug Poss.     Drug Convictions Drug Poss.   Possession Sent to Convictions     Possession Sent to Convictions     Possession Sent to Convictions   Convictions Prison Sent to Prison     Convictions Prison Sent to Prison     Convictions Prison Sent to Prison Adair 4 1 25%   Grant 0 n/a     Nowata 2 1 50% Alfalfa 2 0 0%   Greer 8 0 0%   Okfuskee 13 8 62% Atoka 19 6 32%   Harmon 0 n/a     Oklahoma 1018 511 50% Beaver 2 0 0%   Harper 1 0 0%   Okmulgee 31 12 39% Beckham 13 2 15%   Haskell 13 1 8%   Osage 33 14 42% Blaine 4 1 25%   Hughes 8 3 38%   Ottawa 18 3 17% Bryan 56 9 16%   Jackson 12 2 17%   Pawnee 9 8 89% Caddo 19 8 42%   Jefferson 8 3 38%   Payne 67 20 30% Canadian 26 9 35%   Johnston 9 6 67%   Pittsburg 48 13 27% Carter 35 22 63%   Kay 13 6 46%   Pontotoc 45 20 44% Cherokee 14 2 14%   Kingfisher 3 3 100%   Pottawatomie 60 28 47% Choctaw 22 4 18%   Kiowa 4 2 50%   Pushmataha 11 1 9% Cimarron 2 1 50%   Latimer 4 0 0%   Roger Mills 2 0 0% Cleveland 50 14 28%   LeFlore 35 15 43%   Rogers 61 21 34% Coal 21 7 33%   Lincoln 28 11 39%   Seminole 29 7 24% Comanche 89 63 71%   Logan 36 16 44%   Sequoyah 99 17 17% Cotton 3 1 33%   Love 15 4 27%   Stephens 48 28 58% Craig 17 5 29%   Major 3 0 0%   Texas 23 3 13% Creek 26 15 58%   Marshall 17 3 18%   Tillman 5 2 40% Custer 14 5 36%   Mayes 46 6 13%   Tulsa 802 417 52% Delaware 27 3 11%   McClain 15 5 33%   Wagoner 30 7 23% Dewey 2 0 0%   McCurtain 33 13 39%   Washington 14 8 57% Ellis 2 0 0%   McIntosh 26 11 42%   Washita 5 1 20% Garfield 42 13 31%   Murray 11 4 36%   Woods 0 n/a   Garvin 48 5 10%   Muskogee 94 23 24%   Woodward 7 0 0% Grady 24 9 38%   Noble 0 n/a     State Total 3,505 1,492 42.6%
Source: Criminal Justice Resource Center, Statewide Felony Dispositions Report for FY'00


13. Comparison of "1st Time, Non-violent Prisoners"

  Comparison of Analyses of '1st Time Criminals' Sentenced to Prison                                 Department of Corrections         Number     Criminal Justice Resource Center         Number                               1. Population considered: inmates in prison         21,000   1. Population considered: inmate receptions in FY'99         6,599                               2. Initial Query of Computer Records: 1st-time in prison,             2. Initial Query of Computer Records: All prisoners received,             non-violent controlling offense, excluding drug trafficking               whether convicted of a violent or non-violent offense,             & manufacturing and multiple judgement/sentence dates.         1,741     whose court records showed no prior offenses.         2,069                               3. Additional qualifier: review each inmate's "jacket" to             3. Additional qualifier: Exclude offenders convicted of a             detect prior juvenile offenses; prior convictions not               violent offense, drug trafficking or drug manufacturing; and             reflected in the mainframe (no limit in years passed); and               those with multiple judgement/sentence dates.             out-of-state convictions.         740     Note: CJRC cannot access juvenile records. CJRC                             tracks out-of-state prior convictions only if they are                             entered into court records, or if DOC forwards RAP sheet.                                       1,209   District Attorney's Council Review of DOC records                                                         4. Population Considered: case-by-case review by DA         740   4. CJRC database on prison receptions was queried to         1,209   offices of 631 of the 740 DOC "1st-timers".               apply to reception data the criteria deemed by DA                             analysis to be non-qualifying.                                         5. Additional qualifier: Private DA records showed prior             5. There are no public records that can verify DA deferred             convictions on 142 of the 740 (e.g., DA deferred               prosecutions.             sentences).         489               n/a                               6. Additional qualifier: 133 of the 740 had been sentenced             6. Exclude 362 prison receptions to RID/FORT, which are             toa prison-based program such as RID/FORT, which the               shock-incarceration programs. Because they are             DAs consider "alternative sentencing."         356     short-term programs, annual receptions exceed capacity.         847                               7. Additional qualifier: 31 of the 740 were sent to prison             7. Exclude 16 prison receptions that were the result of a blind             as a result of a blind plea or jury trial (DA did not               plea or a jury trial.             negotiate a prison terms as a plea agreement)         325               831                               8. Additional qualifer: 212 of the 740 were incarcerated on             8. Exclude 319 other drug offenders whose charges were not             drug charges (67 for dealing or manufacturing, 82 for               related to trafficking/manufacturing. This includes             multiple drug charges, 63 for single drug charges).         113     possession, distribution, cultivation, etc.         512                               9. Additional qualifier: 54 of the 704 were charged with             9. CJRC methodology does not capture information on             multiple non-drug counts, whether or not they were               initial charges; only charges that result in conviction are             convicted on multiple counts.         59     entered.         n/a                                               10. Exclude 226 revoked sentences (the DOC and DA analyses                             of prison population exclude revokes as 1st-timers).         286


14. Discussion of Issues: Defining "1st-Time Non-Violent Offender"

 

Resolving Differences in Defining "1st-Time, Non-violent Offender"

1. Records of prior offenses, especially juvenile and out-of-state, are not always entered into records by law (juvenile) or by practice ("dropping page 2").

  1. Should juvenile crimes -- not adjudicated in an adversarial court process -- be considered prior offenses, even if they are non-violent?
  2. How old must a prior adult conviction be before an offender should be considered for an alternative sentence?

2. DA deferred prosecutions: DOC and CJRC cannot access private files of prosecutors.

  1. Should a crime which the DA decided not worthy or punishment be considered a prior offense?
  2. If deferred prosecution (no official record) is the first step, shouldn't deferred sentence (official record, untilmately deleted) and suspended sentence (permanent record) be subsequest steps before imprisonment?

3. Drug crimes: Define a threshold above which imprisonment is a proper level of punishment.

  1. 1st-time drug possession crimes?
  2. Subsequent drug possession crimes? How many?
  3. First-time drug dealing?
  4. First-time cultivation?
  5. Trafficking/manufacturing?

4. Multiple Counts / Multiple Convictions

  1. Should an offenders charged/convicted of multiple crimes, stemming from one incident, be considered a 1st-timer, for purposes of determining whether imprisonment is proper?

Community Sentencing Summary

15. Community Sentencing Status Report

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16. Prison Receptions from Community Sentencing Counties

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