Criminal Justice Advisory Council seeks continued county support; CJAC highlights diversion results and data-hub pilot

Melissa Walton, executive director of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council (CJAC), presented the third amendment to CJAC’s professional services agreement and described CJAC’s current priorities — courts, facilities and a data hub — at the June 9 Policy & Governance meeting. The amendment, approved by CJAC on May 15, extends CJAC’s contract through June 30, 2026 and defines reporting deliverables and compensation under the agreement.

Walton said CJAC was founded following a Vera Institute report in 2015 and that the council’s mission is to promote policies that increase criminal justice effectiveness and public safety while improving partner collaboration. She outlined three subcommittees: a courts subcommittee (led by Judge Ogden) that is streamlining diversion court screening; a facilities subcommittee focused on defining populations to be served at the new behavioral health center; and a data committee pursuing a common case identifier and a data‑hub pilot to trace cases from first law‑enforcement interaction through court disposition.

Walton described CJAC’s role as fiscal agent for a federal CASA grant (supporting the county’s misdemeanor diversion program, MDP), which embeds therapists and peer‑support specialists at the Diversion Hub. She reported that, since October 2023, CJAC‑administered grant activities have produced 555 diverted cases and 254 individuals served, and that program graduates obtain case dismissals at a higher rate than the general population. Walton calculated a county savings example based on days avoided in detention and reported that 77% of MDP participants graduated successfully, with a 15% recidivism rate compared with a 28% general recidivism rate in the county.

Walton said some VERA recommendations have been implemented and that CJAC’s work contributed to prior jail-population reductions, but she warned that the daily detention population has recently trended upward to about 1,500 per day and that continued collaboration is needed to sustain reforms.

On implementation timing, Walton said public-defender and district-attorney trainings are complete and that trainings for judges were expected by June 30; she said case-level implementation tied to training would begin once judicial training is complete.

"CJAC was founded out of the Vera Institute report back in 2015," Walton said. "Our goal has been to convene decision makers to work together to find solutions that reduce the population of the jail, increase efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system."