Oklahoma Policy Institute News Archive: Advocacy Alert - Support SB 704 to make our communities safer

Friday, February 26, 2021

Advocacy Alert - Support SB 704 to make our communities safer

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Together Oklahoma advocates,

First, thank you so much for your support and advocacy. None of the work we do at Together Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Policy Institute would be possible without Oklahomans like you fighting for better policy in our state. Senate Bill 704 is one of the most important criminal justice reforms in OK Policy's safe communities agenda this year, but the bill is in danger of not moving forward. Unless SB 704 is added to the Senate Appropriations Committee agenda on Monday, this bill will fail.

So we're asking as many voters who can call and write emails to do so.

Below we've placed a list of committee members to call or email this weekend and Monday. Here's a simple script that can be adapted for either a call or an email:

"I'm a voter who's very concerned about criminal justice reform in Oklahoma. Senate Bill 704 is a modest step towards reducing our state's expensive prison crisis. It's also the only bill still being considered that would meaningfully reduce Oklahoma's prison population. Such a reform is long overdue. So I'm contacting you to ask you to urge SB 704 to be added to the Senate Appropriations Committee agenda Monday and ask you to please VOTE YES on SB 704.

We need Oklahoma to continue to move forward on this issue. Oklahoma will never live up to its potential as an attractive state for business or development until we reduce this state's dependence on prisons and jails in favor of investments in services proven to reduce crime. Thank you for supporting justice reform in Oklahoma."

Here's the list of committee members.

Sen. Dave Rader is the author of SB 704 so if you call him thank him for his support.

Chair, Sen. Roger Thompson
Roger.Thompson@oksenate.gov
405-521-5588

Vice-Chair, Sen. Chuck Hall
Chuck.Hall@oksenate.gov
405-521-5628

Sen. Michael Brooks
Michael.Brooks@oksenate.gov
405-521-5557

Sen. J.J. Dossett
JJ.Dossett@oksenate.gov
405-521-5566

Sen. Tom Dugger
Tom.Dugger@oksenate.gov
405-521-5572

Sen. Kay Floyd
Kay.Floyd@oksenate.gov
405-521-5610

Sen. John Haste
John.Haste@oksenate.gov
405-521-5062

Sen. Brent Howard
Brent.Howard@oksenate.gov
405-521-5612

Sen. Darcy Jech
Darcy.Jech@oksenate.gov
405-521-5545

Chris Kidd
Chris.Kidd@oksenate.gov
405-521-5563