Commentary: Court News: Gathering insights from felony sentencing

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 14, 2005 by Patricia Presley

Most folks would likely agree that criminal activity in our state is too high. But what does that mean and how does one quantify it? Is it even true?

Other questions: which areas of the state have higher criminal activity? What types of crimes are prevalent? What are the conviction rates in various counties? What sentences are handed down for convictions?

Answers to these and other questions can be found in the felony sentencing report issued by the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission, a state agency.

For example, between 1994 and 2003, total arrests in our state remained stable, except for an increase between 1996-98, a commission report stated. However, arrests for drug crimes have increased 87 percent during the same time period, the commission found.

In fact, more than half of all offenders - about 52 percent - were convicted for alcohol and drug crimes. Drug possession comprised almost 24 percent of all offenders convicted, for the time frame examined.

For 2003 alone, there were some 33,837 felony convictions in all 77 Oklahoma counties. These crimes were attributed to about 20,000 individuals.

About 55 percent of those convicted of felonies in 2003 were sent to jail or prison. The remainder were sentenced to some type of probation or were processed through a so-called diversion program, such as drug court.

Next week, in the concluding part of this article, we'll examine various crime statistics in several counties, and some Sentencing Commission recommendations. The information might be surprising.

Patricia Presley is the Oklahoma County court clerk.