Bill in state senate would make bail more affordable

A bill being considered in the Oklahoma State Senate aims at making bail more affordable for jail inmates.

It's author, Rep. Nicole Miller, says unreasonably high bails are keeping non-violent offenders in jail longer than they need to be.

The goal of HB 1294 is to set up a standardized test for each inmate to find a bail price they can afford.

When inmates can't afford to post bond , Miller says they're adding to the overcrowding in Oklahoma jails.

"Right now, there's really no clear standardized test on a defendant's ability to pay," Miller said.

Miller says, in the Oklahoma County Jail, 80 percent of the inmates have not yet been convicted of a crime.

And she says 64 percent of those inmates are there for a non-violent misdemeanor offense.

"What happens is a person can't pay in the first place, and then they're held, they're not able to see a judge for thirty days, that's quite some time," Miller said. "That's the max amount."

Miller says there should be a set of questions for each defendant to decide how much their bail should be.

She proposes taking into account if they have a job, if they're homeless, are they already in a government support program and what other resources they have.

When people can't afford bail, Miller says getting stuck in jail can be the beginning of a cascade of other problems.

"What happens is they, a lot of times, lose their job, they lose their ability to produce any kind of income and then sometimes they lose their homes," Miller said. "The far-reaching effects of that, sometimes their children go into DHS custody, and that is what we're trying to obviously prevent."

Miller says right now this is a stand-alone bill, but it could end up being folded into a larger criminal justice reform package.