Senate Bill 1369:
SB 1369 appropriates $5.7 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to provide funding to sustain and expand operations of a 9- 8-8 suicide and crisis hotlineFederal funding for 988 was appropriated for a limited time and is scheduled to end this September, and there is no guarantee Congress will renew federal funding.The bill is authored by Sen. Brenda Stanley (R-Midwest City.)The cost is anticipated to be $5.7 million to continue the funding. The legislation is awaiting a hearing in the state senate.
“That suicide hotline has been so valuable to Oklahoma, and the money runs out federally at the end of the fiscal year. So I’m asking for that appropriation to continue. 988 actually saves us millions of dollars in the state because it frees up our emergency rooms. It frees up hospital beds. It frees up our police and fire departments,” said Sen. Stanley. “So that is a huge piece for me to get that funded and across the line, so we can continue to help the people in crisis.”
“This goes for women and children and veterans. We have, nationwide 22 veterans a day committing suicide. I am the chair of Veterans and Military Affairs in the Senate. So anything we can do to help our veterans is crucial. Also for children, we have so many children in crisis now, and our mental health outcomes have to get better,” said Sen. Stanley.
Oklahoma’s 988 Mental Health Lifeline has handled over 178,000 calls, texts, and chats since its July 2022 launch, boasting a 99.8% in-state answer rate. The service has a ~90% stabilization rate and connects people to mobile crisis teams, with 72% of calls resolved over the phone.
“It fields 7,000- 8,000 phone calls a month, that is huge. Think of the impact that has on our first responders. 988 actually puts you in touch with a mental health provider so that you can get that help right away,” said Sen. Stanley.
Senate Bill 1450:
SB 1450 requires each court to waive outstanding fees, fines, and court costs for any person who has made installment payments on such debts on a timely basis for 48 months in the last 60- month period. Payments are considered timely if such payments were made within 30 days of the due date. The measure authorizes courts to grant waivers to defendants if they find such defendants have substantially complied with certain requirements.The legislation is written by Senate Majority Floor Leader Julie Daniels ( R-Bartselville.)The legislation passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a vote of 8-0.
“When you go into the legislature, you may have a preconceived notion about criminal justice and our criminal justice system. Certainly, all of us are for law and order, but we’re also for second chances,” said Daniels. “I’ve seen in my ten years in the Senate that sometimes we fail to look at the ways that we can very much offer second chances to people, get them reintegrated, get them back with their families, get them be productive citizens so they don’t re-offend. One of those ways is to look at the fines and fees that they may come out of prison with or if they’re on probation. Sometimes these could be so large that you lose all hope that you will ever be able to pay those off, and sometimes that leads to bad actions, and it certainly is bad for families.
“So my bill would say, if you’ve come out and you’ve consistently made a payment, over a period of time, instead of the court having discretion to say, you’ve done very well, we’re going to waive the rest of what you owe, we’re going to say the court will do it,” said Daniels.
“I think this will go a long way to keeping families together, helping somebody get a job and knowing that they can use their paycheck to pay their bills and not to pay their fines and fees. Certainly, this doesn’t involve restitution. We should also always look at restitution to the victim first. But it’s something I’ve worked on with others for a number of years, and I think this year is the right time for that,” said Sen. Daniels.
Senate Bill 1386:
SB1386 authorizes the Supreme Court to create a pilot program to be implemented in a minimum of twelve courtrooms, with preference given to courtrooms without a court reporter. The Administrative Office of the Courts shall promulgate rules for the use of audio and video recording equipment capable of broadcasting and livestreaming.The legislation is written by Sen. Christie Gillespie ( R-Broken Arrow.)The legislation passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a vote of 7-1.
“We have our police officers, they have body-worn cameras, and we take care of that at the city level, so that people can come in, they can get an open records request and can get all of that footage. They make sure that victims are protected. Cameras in the courtroom, this bill. would do the same thing except in the courtroom setting,” said Sen. Gillespie.
“Many courtrooms already have cameras, but they’re being turned off, intentionally, and all we want is that transparency to go all the way into the courtroom setting so that there can be open records request and and so that we can see everything that’s happened in the courtroom with the exception, victims will still be protected. All those protections that are in place right now will stay protected,” said Gillespie.
“But we just want to make sure that whenever you go through the process of a trial, that it’s all documented. So if somebody comes forward and says “this happened,” maybe it’s not in the transcript, because maybe it was a reaction, we can make sure that there’s transparency all the way through the court system,” said Gillespie.
“We have a shortage of court reporters. Whenever I’ve asked, if a court reporter isn’t in the room, what happens? I’ve been told they actually record it. If a court reporter isn’t in the room, they don’t do a video recording, they do an audio recording. I think there’s probably some things that could be lost in translation with just an audio recording,” said Gillespie. “So this would actually give the court reporters more opportunities to make money because they’re going to be more requests because of the actual video.”