Celebrating Major Policy Wins & Continued Momentum
Friends,
With most of our priority state legislative sessions having ended, now is a great time to reflect on the progress made this year.
We will be providing a broader read-out from all of our priority states in a future newsletter, but for now, we are celebrating the exciting victories coming out of Oklahoma and also highlighting our ongoing efforts to secure funding for Arizona's Independent Correctional Oversight Office.
Oklahoma
Three Bills Signed into Law
This year, three of our priority bills were signed into law by Governor Stitt, a huge accomplishment during this politically difficult year.
We’re very grateful to the lawmaker champions we worked with on these bills who made these victories possible.
1. Clean Slate Implementation: Senate Bill 2030, sponsored by Sen. Adam Pugh (R) and Rep. Nicole Miller (R), will allow the state’s Clean Slate Act to be fully implemented.
Background: In 2022, Oklahoma became the sixth state in the country to pass Clean Slate legislation. Clean Slate is a policy that requires courts to automatically seal eligible criminal records for individuals instead of making them go through an expensive, inefficient, and under-utilized petition-based sealing process. However, technical and administrative challenges remained when it came to implementation, and Senate Bill 2030 addressed those issues.
What the Bill Does: The bill requires courts to begin automatically expunging eligible records in 2029, helping ensure relief is delivered through a clear and efficient process people can actually rely on.
Projected Impact: Once the law is fully implemented, roughly 354,000 Oklahomans with eligible records will be on a path to full record sealing!
For too many people, an old record can keep showing up long after they’ve done everything required of them. That can mean missed job opportunities, denied housing, and barriers to stability, even when someone is eligible for a second chance under the law.
JAN was proud to support this effort alongside the Clean Slate Initiative, Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, and Marilyn Davidson with Right on Crime. We appreciate the leadership of our legislative champions–who also sponsored the 2022 legislation that made Oklahoma a Clean Slate state–in moving this important implementation work forward.
2. Understanding the Use of Cost Arrest Warrants: House Bill 3321, sponsored by Rep. Mike Osburn (R) and Sen. Todd Gollihare (R), directs the state’s Cost Administration Implementation Committee to develop and implement a plan for gathering county-level data on the use of cost arrest warrants in the state. Cost arrest warrants are warrants issued for failure to pay fines and fees–not for the commission of a new crime.
Background: The original draft of House Bill 3321 eliminated the use of cost arrest warrants statewide. However, after some opposition that threatened passage, the bill’s scope shifted to gather data on the use of cost arrest warrants in the state to better understand this practice with the hope of informing future legislation.
The first data report is due by the end of 2026, with annual reports due by November 15th each year.
We are extremely grateful to Rep. Mike Osburn for his leadership on this issue. Not only did he make this bill a top priority, but he also demonstrated the integrity and statesmanship necessary to guide it across the finish line despite strong opposition from parties in maintaining the status quo.
3. Ability to Pay Hearings: Finally, the third priority bill signed into law in Oklahoma this year was House Bill 4237. Sponsored by Rep. Chris Kannady (R) and Sen. Todd Gollihare (R), the bill requires the courts to offer to conduct an ability to pay hearing contemporaneously at the time of sentencing to determine the ability of the defendant to pay any financial obligations (fines, fees, and other court costs).
One Executive Order Signed
Finally, prior to this year’s legislative session, Governor Stitt signed an Executive Order (EO) requiring the collection of data related to the use of civil asset forfeiture in the state.
Our Executive Director Lauren Krisai spoke to KTUL Tulsa's Channel 8 News about the importance of the EO when it was signed.
Arizona
JAN in the Media:
Funding for the Independent Correctional Oversight Office
One of our top priorities in Arizona this year is to secure funding for the Independent Correctional Oversight Office, which was established by legislation signed last year, Senate Bill 1507.
JAN’s Senior State Policy Analyst and Arizona lead, Estrella López, has spoken to numerous media outlets in recent weeks on the importance of funding this office. Below is an excerpt of her comments to CBS 5 - Arizona’s Family.
“Unfortunately, it exists on paper only because there’s no funding,” Estrella Lopez of the Justice Action Network said.
Lopez’s organization is pushing for $1.5 million in next year’s budget for the oversight office. She said the state spends nearly $1.5 billion each year on its prison system.
“Given the costs that the state has been made to bear with lawsuits and now with federal receivership, it’s just really a great investment that will avert future costs,” Lopez said.
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