Pardon and Parole Board says new ICON system should speed releases, reduce paper costs

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board told the House Appropriations and Budget Committee that a November rollout of a new offender-management system, ICON, and other automation steps should shorten the time between board approval and offender release and cut costs.

Agency leaders said the board, which reviews paroles, commutations and pardons, completed a rules and policy review for fiscal 2024–25, moved many commutation materials to a shared electronic process and brought some legal work back in-house to reduce external contracts. Staff said automation and ICON help reduce postage and paper costs and were implemented to reduce the time from board action to release, which the presentation noted saves the state roughly $60–$67 per incarcerated person per day.

The board reported that in calendar 2024 it docketed and considered 5,197 cases, prepared about 3,600 investigative reports, docketed 4,689 new Department of Corrections arrivals, processed 52 revocations, held 41 revocation hearings, processed 88 waivers of parole and prepared 922 parole certificates. Presenters said ICON has improved data flow between the Department of Corrections and the board and is expected to make report generation and docketing more efficient; investigators and staff have reported faster report completion since the launch.

Committee members asked about workload, legal-service arrangements and staffing. Staff explained that an earlier contract with the state attorney general’s office to handle revocations (about $35,000 annually) was folded back into the board’s general counsel office when workload spiked and the office had capacity to manage those matters in-house. The board described ongoing staffing challenges for investigators and said restructuring roles and automating tasks are part of the plan to retain employees and maintain service.

Officials declined to give a precise current count of pending commutation applications during the hearing but said they now hear about 35 commutation applications a month and 25–30 pardons per month, and that the agency submits annual statistical reports to the Legislature (contracted to the University of Oklahoma for analysis).

The board asked the committee to note the productivity gains from ICON and the continuing need to staff investigations: the agency said it operates roughly 24.5 full-time positions with seven supervisors and has historically struggled to maintain a stable investigator complement of 12 (often carrying 9–10 experienced investigators in practice). Presenters said carryover and legislative appropriations have helped, and they are not requesting additional appropriation increases at this hearing.