Tackling Oklahoma Debtors Prison in the Legislature


Tackling Oklahoma Debtors Prison in the Legislature


Join us today as we dive into fines and fees reform in Oklahoma with David Gateley of the Oklahoma Policy Institute. We're diving into three bills surrounding fines and fees reform with an added sneak peak into our expungement episode and the massive effect all of these bills would have on hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans.

Currently, the state's court system receives relatively little in payments from offenders who have been assessed fines and fees. It's estimated that 70 percent of criminal-court fines and fees assessed to criminal defendants are never paid. Over $630 million in criminal court fines and fees went uncollected in Oklahoma from 2012 to 2018. With these egregious numbers, there's no question as to why this is a bipartisan effort in Oklahoma.