The O’Collegian

Oklahomans charged with nonviolent crimes are often sentenced for the same amount of time as violent offenders, according to a Daily O’Collegian investigation of data from the state’s correctional department.

This trend particularly reflects drug-related offenses. Those convicted for possession of marijuana served the same amount of time for those found guilty of aggravated assault and battery, a median of 8 years, an analysis of current sentencing data showed.

One Payne County judge said these numbers aren’t surprising.

Judge Robert Murphy said jails and prisons should be reserved for the most predatory, harmful types of people. But sometimes judges just take the safer side.

“In other words, (if) I send somebody to a treatment program, and then he breaks out and rapes and murders and pillages, then some reporter like you puts my name on the front page and says, ‘Look at this idiot judge that let this guy go when he should have been locked away for a long time,’” Murphy said.

“So a lot of judges say, ‘Well, I’ll just take the safe side, and just throw the book at everybody. Then nobody can blame me.’”

One bill Oklahoma legislators are reviewing is House Bill 1327, which modifies the definition of “nonviolent offense” to include assault, battery or assault and battery with a deadly weapon, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ Web site. The bill’s purpose is to accommodate the Oklahoma Prison Overcrowding Emergency Powers Act, according to the Web site.

No public official wants to be seen as soft on crime, Murphy said.

“You’re not going to see any [district attorney] get elected that is perceived to be soft on crime,” he said.

One researcher for Common Sense for Drug Policy, an organization dedicated to reforming drug policies, said this these numbers do not reflect a new trend, that in fact this has been happening for years.

“We have our police chasing after marijuana bushes and pot smokers, when really they’re ignoring a lot of crime that’s happening,” said Doug McVay, the group’s director of research.

Murphy said police and government officials aren’t the only ones at blame for tough-on-crime policies.

“There’s a lot of people you could point the finger at,” Murphy said. “I mean the press is one. You know, the public’s the other. But a lot times the what the public’s perception is what they get from the media.”

Murphy said drugs offenses are seen more often than any other type in Payne County.

Dee Miller, the community sentencing coordinator for the DOC, said majority of her clients have substance abuse problems.

“The drug problem is awful high here, as it is everywhere,” she said.

The community sentencing program helps keep offenders accountable to their conditions while on probation, such as counseling and other rehabilitation programs, Miller said.

“We try to help adults be accountable, which many people have never done in their lives,” Miller said.

Miller said she thinks similar sentencing for violent and nonviolent offenders may not be necessarily unfair.

She said people should consider the number of people an offense affects, rather than if a crime is violent or nonviolent.

“Someone who is charged with assault battery are probably only hurting one person,” Miller said. “When you are manufacturing (drugs), how many are you selling to? When you look at the numbers that way, it may be different.”

Miller said oftentimes the state takes children away from drug offenders.

She recalled one client in particular.

“For instance, I had a female client who had three children,” Miller said. “Her oldest son was sent home because of disruptive behavior in school, her 13-year-old daughter was using marijuana, and her 8-year-old was in state custody.”

Miller said drug usage has the most impact on the family.

“Her life, the lives of her three children were affected simply because of that behavior,” she said.

Although drug behavior hits families the hardest, Miller said you can’t stop people from having children.

“It’s against the law to tie people’s tubes and castrate them,” she said.

But the program’s goal is to help people get back on their feet so they can begin contributing to society, whether it’s helping offenders earn their G.E.D. or obtain vocational training.

“These people usually have an average of eighth-grade education, and you make more money selling drugs than working at Wendy’s,” Miller said.

Murphy said studies have shown the best way to keep people from reoffending, the overall goal of the criminal justice system, is by offering therapy strategies in outpatient settings.

“In other words, out of custody, you’re more successful than you are in custody, plus it’s a lot cheaper,” Murphy said. “You really ought to reserve the custodial situation (imprisonment) for the people that are harmful — the predatory, violent types.”

McVay also has concerns that putting people in jail or prison doesn’t keep people from offending.

“If we take the offender, the probationer, and then throw them in the slammer for a couple of days, we’ve probably helped them lose their job, we’ve damaged their relationship with family and friends, which they are supposed to be rebuilding,” McVay said.

McVay also said researchers have found people are more likely to use drugs after they go through the criminal justice system.

“For most people, prison is an experience that is not helpful, it only makes them more likely to reoffend,” he said.

Murphy said if he could advise the public on the issue he would tell them to look at the situation objectively.

“I’d just say open your eyes and be objective and look at the real data,” he said. “I mean it isn’t any secret.”

Rather than trusting politicians or the media, which oftentimes sensationalizes the issue, look at the big picture, Murphy said.

“In other words, if [the media] would publicize here are all these people we’ve got locked up forever and that aren’t going to hurt anybody if you let them out tomorrow, [then] we could save a lot of money by not having to build a big jail like we’re building out here,” Murphy said. “Then we’d have more money to pay underpaid college professors and different people like that.”