DRUG POSSESSION PUNISHMENT REFORMS SUGGESTED

Oklahoma should eliminate mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug
possession and should exert more time and effort toward supervising its
parolees, a state commission says. Those suggestions are among the Oklahoma
Sentencing Commission's annual recommendations to the Legislature on
managing the state's criminal justice system.

The commission voted down proposals from the District Attorneys Association
to make methamphetamine manufacturing and drug trafficking crimes violent
offenses.

The commission's recommendations include:

Eliminating mandatory minimum prison sentences for people convicted of drug
possession or for nonviolent felonies that are not habitual offenses. Drug
courts, community sentencing or probation would be better ways to deal with
such criminals, commissioners said.

Danny Williams, a Tulsa defense attorney who serves on the commission
representing the Oklahoma Bar Association, said a majority of the group
feels mandatory minimums aren't helpful in many cases.

"With mandatory minimums, we are sending drug addicts to prison. These same
people are coming out of prison as drug addicts today. Treatment programs
should be an option," Williams said.

Creating a new punishment system for criminals on parole and probation who
violate simple rules, like missing a parole meeting or failing a drug
screening.

Judges today can only revoke a probation and send the offender to prison,
or let him go without punishment.

Commissioners suggest judges could better deal with such violations by
imposing fines, community service and local jail detention. They add the
new program would save the state money.

More than 10 percent of the people sent to state prisons in 2003 were
parole or probation violators, commissioners said.

"The idea is not to be soft on crime, but to be smart about it," said Jim
Drummond, the noncapital trial division director for Oklahoma's Indigent
Defense System.

Intermediate punishments can help keep such violators on the right path, he
also said.

"If you give someone a chance by not simply returning them to prison, then
chances are increased they will ultimately succeed and become a productive
member of society," Drummond said.

He stressed that parole revocations could still be done, when warranted.

Improving the tracking of sex offenders by changing state laws so that such
criminals must serve probationary time as part of their sentences.

Changing the Oklahoma Constitution to remove the requirement for the
governor to consider every parole recommendation. Commissioners propose a
parole plan where the governor would only consider such recommendations
when they are protested by a prosecutor or crime victim.