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December 21, 2009

Statewide summit on incarcerated women set at OC

OKLAHOMA CITY — OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Christian University, in partnership with the George Kaiser Family Foundation and Don and Donna Millican, announced it will host a summit on Jan. 26 to address the high rate of female incarceration in Oklahoma. The summit, which is a part of Oklahoma Christian’s Complex Dialogues series, will focus on prevention and early intervention as well as incarceration alternatives for nonviolent offenders, who make up 68 percent of Oklahoma’s female prison population.

Oklahoma currently leads the United States in incarcerating women, at a rate of 134 women per 100,000, compared to the national average of 69 women per 100,000.

“Our high rate of incarcerating nonviolent females not only impacts the state financially, but more importantly, it adversely affects the children of those incarcerated and thus influences future generations,” said state Rep. Kris Steele. “We must be smarter in our efforts to address nonviolent women offenders. With input and participation from leaders across the state, I am confident that we can address this issue through legislative, judicial, community support, educational, prevention and early intervention initiatives developed during the summit.”

Committees comprised of Oklahoma legislators, judges, attorneys, community service providers, educators, researchers, business leaders and government officials will meet several times prior to the conference to discuss steps each group can take to solve the issue. Recommendations from each group will be presented and discussed during the summit.

“This is an important issue that impacts every community in our state,” said Ken Levit, executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation. “The summit will serve as a spring board for a statewide discussion that will result in proactive initiatives and innovative solutions for reducing our female incarceration rate.”

“The Complex Dialogues series is an important part of our university’s commitment to free and respectful inquiry and the search for truth, which helps our students become wise thinkers and make a meaningful difference for good in our world,” said Dr. Mike O’Neal, president of Oklahoma Christian University. “This will not be your typical conference. We are bringing together key decision makers and challenging them to develop solutions that they can implement following the conference. It is our strong intention that the ultimate outcome of this symposium not be merely an acknowledgement of the problem and an academic exercise about solutions, but rather many lives enriched and a better Oklahoma.”

For more information on the Women Incarcerated Summit, contact Brian Bush, executive director of Oklahoma Christian University Academy of Leadership and Liberty, at brian.bush@oc.edu or 425-1065.

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