Prisons and reformatories; modifying provisions related to inmate earned credits. Effective date.
SB1213 amends Oklahoma’s inmate earned-credits law for state correctional institutions. The bill keeps the existing class-level system for earning monthly credits toward sentence reduction, but removes the incarceration-length requirement for certain class levels, updates statutory language, and makes the text gender neutral. It continues to allow earned credits to be awarded, removed, and restored under Department of Corrections policies, and it preserves the existing exclusions for inmates serving life sentences, inmates convicted of specified offenses, and certain probation violators.
The bill also retains and clarifies the Department of Corrections’ authority to set class-level policies, including criteria tied to work, education, programming, conduct, hygiene, and rehabilitation. It continues the enhanced credit structure for inmates with no prior disqualifying felony history, while maintaining the lower credit schedule for inmates with specified prior convictions. Additional achievement credits remain available for educational attainment, vocational training, and approved treatment programs, and the bill preserves rules for medical leave, administrative segregation, county-jail time, and monthly accounting of accumulated time.
SB1213 amends 57 O.S. Section 138, the statute governing earned credits for inmates, and therefore affects how the Department of Corrections calculates sentence reductions and classifies inmates for credit eligibility. It does not create a new program, but it modifies eligibility rules and updates administrative language, including gender-neutral terminology and revised class-level requirements. The bill also preserves and continues the statutory list of serious offenses that disqualify inmates from the higher earned-credit schedule, as well as the Department’s authority to administer class reviews and achievement credits.
The available legislative history shows strong support for the bill. It advanced unanimously in the Senate Judiciary Committee and passed Senate third reading with no opposition. In the House, it also moved through the Public Safety Committee unanimously and then passed the Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight Committee with only one dissenting vote. Overall, the discussion and votes suggest broad agreement with the bill’s corrections-policy changes and no major floor-level controversy in the recorded history.
The main policy issue is the scope of earned-credit eligibility for inmates, especially the removal of incarceration-length requirements for certain class levels and the continued exclusion of inmates with serious violent, sexual, or other enumerated felony convictions from the most favorable credit schedule. Support appears to center on administrative clarity, rehabilitation incentives, and updated language, while any opposition likely relates to public-safety concerns about sentence reductions for incarcerated people. The recorded votes indicate that any disagreement was limited and did not prevent the bill from advancing easily.