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Criminal justice reform task force holds first public meeting

Daily Oklahoman - 10/3/2019

Oct. 3--Ebonie Doyle is working hard to break the cycle for her three children.

Doyle spent most of her life feeling hopeless and alone. Her mom gave birth to her in prison. Her great-grandmother cared for Doyle until Doyle had to start caring for her. When Doyle was 12 years old, the state intervened and separated her and her then 2-year-old brother. Doyle was abused while in foster care.

Looking for love, she wound up working in prostitution. She was abused, beaten, stabbed and raped.

"I don't understand how I made it," Doyle said Wednesday during a criminal justice reform task force meeting in Tulsa. "I should have been dead."

Doyle was one of several people whose lives have intersected with the criminal justice system who shared their stories during the first public meeting of the Criminal Justice Reentry, Supervision, Treatment and Opportunity Reform (RESTORE) Task Force, which Gov. Kevin Stitt created through an executive order in May.

Their stories highlighted the complexities of the issues the task force is working to address. The 15-member group is tasked with looking at ways to reduce the state's high incarceration rate and recidivism, to enhance and establish diversion programs and to deter criminal activity, among other objectives.

The task force must make reform recommendations by early December. During the past several months, six subcommittees have been meeting with people from a variety of backgrounds to examine issues that range from challenges that can cause someone to become involved in the criminal justice system to sentencing to barriers upon reentry.

"I don't know what the solution may be," Doyle said. "But I know there's a lot of little Ebonies out there."

The importance of having a positive role model or peer mentor was a common theme Wednesday.

Doyle said her life started to turn around four or five years ago. While staying at City Rescue Mission with her three children, Cleveland County Sheriff Todd Gibson and his wife and other members of Followers of Jesus church visited the shelter. Doyle said she had never experienced unconditional love. She didn't think she deserved it. But Gibson and his wife showed her that she was somebody, and she was worthy of love.

"From that point, my life started changing because I started learning from them," she said.

The task force and guest speakers discussed a variety of other topics Wednesday, from education and support services to fines and fees and challenges when re-integrating into society to issues of race.

"When you spend time in communities of color, when you have authentic relationships with black families and you visit those families in those neighborhoods that are statistically the worst, what you begin to learn, what you begin to feel, what you begin to believe is there's a conflict between the numbers that we see in the criminal justice system and the people you meet in those neighborhoods and those places," said Oklahoma City police Lt. Wayland Cubit. "The number of African Americans in Oklahoma, that percentage, versus the percentage that fills our jails and prisons, don't equate."

Cubit said individual biases will always play a factor, but he questioned what is being done to identify any systemic biases that exist.

"What would it look like as a state if we took the bull by the horns and said, we need an office of inclusion, diversity and equity?" he asked. "Somebody to look at the problem, assigned to deal with that issue."

Kelly Doyle, a member of the task force who also serves on the Pardon and Parole Board, said it's disturbing how long people are serving in prison for nonviolent drug crimes, and it's not helping them.

"What would be helpful is to provide treatment as an option, as a carrot," she said. "I think people think you always need the stick, and that's just not true. Even though we do need prisons and people will always go to them, people just don't need that long to be punished, to be sorry and to change."

People can email input and ideas to the task force at RESTORE@sps.ok.gov.

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