Oklahoma Indigent Defense System urges legislature to fund diversion, direct care and staffing to cut jail and prison costs

Debbie Maddox, executive director of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System (OIDS), told the committee the agency is prioritizing diversion and direct-care services and asked the legislature for supplemental and incremental appropriations to deliver those services statewide.

"We have to explore diversion programs on an across the board setting," Maddox said, arguing that diversion can both improve outcomes and reduce costs. She told members that all six states bordering Oklahoma have prosecutor-driven diversion programs, while many Oklahoma district attorneys decline to participate; as a result, Maddox said OIDS is proposing direct-care services to fill gaps where Department of Mental Health (DMH) contracts were canceled.

Maddox cited several data points to justify the approach: LOFT analyses showing a $25 million annual savings from certain rehabilitation funds and Healthy Minds Initiative estimates that broader diversion could save as much as $84 million annually. She said statewide savings estimates depend on program scale and data collection improvements.

The agency’s FY27 priorities, Maddox said, are: 1) a direct-care pilot that would pay initial sober-living rent and navigation supports for the first 90 days after release; 2) expanding resource navigation and multidisciplinary grant applications (citing SB 251 enabling such grants); and 3) hiring eight attorneys to reduce caseloads (five for Norman, two for Lawton, one roving). She also requested $40,000 for internal training to reduce out-of-state travel and a Norman office expansion with an estimated $225,000 startup cost.

Maddox warned of a related budgetary risk: she said a newly created death-eligible offense (lewd molestation of a child under 12) may prompt district attorneys to pursue capital punishment in new case categories, which would substantially raise expert and litigation costs. "The first increment of cost, I believe, will be about half 1,000,000," she said for expert costs and later projected possible growth to $2–3 million annually if death-penalty litigation increases.

On technology and operations, Maddox said OIDS is pursuing an information-system upgrade, exploring integration with Axon’s evidence platform, and replacing an obsolete client-management system (eDefender) to cut staff time for discovery processing. She described efforts to embed DMH staff in OIDS offices to improve coordination and expressed willingness to pursue legislation requiring DA involvement if voluntary cooperation fails.

Committee members asked how proposed diversion models would work with existing statutes and with county jails; Maddox described local pilots in Comanche and Cleveland counties and said outcomes were limited when district attorneys resisted enrollment. She closed by saying OIDS staff are ready to begin work and welcomed further conversations with committee members about implementation details.

No formal votes were taken; committee members said they would review the requests as part of the appropriations process.