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Beyond Legislative Acts - Penal Reform, Public Policy, and Symbolic Justice

NCJ Number
90565
Journal
Public Historian Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1981) Pages: 26-39
Author(s)
J A Conley
Date Published
1981
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examines prison reform in Oklahoma from statehood until the present to determine what groups were involved in penal reform attempts, what overt and covert motives may have guided the groups, and whether the groups used the issue of penal reform to serve interests that were unrelated to penal policy.
Abstract
The study used official prison records, the reports and full testimony of major investigating bodies, and legislative documents. One important finding was that many of the major investigations of Oklahoma's penal system were initiated and conducted by governmental bodies. Thirteen major investigations of the penal system were conducted from 1910, when the State constructed its penitentiary, to 1967, when it created a statewide corrections department. All these investigations followed the same pattern. An event or situation was defined by a public official as a problem; an official investigation of the prison or reformatory occurred; testimony was taken; and a final report that included recommendations was submitted to the governing body. In all instances, the State controlled the reform process. Penal reform was never the primary objective of any of the major investigations. The investigations were used as a manipulative tool to serve parochial economic interests, to protect or enhance the political power of one branch of government over another, to protect the legitimacy of the State's criminal justice system, and to represent substantive penal reform symbolically. The penal problems they were initiated to solve remained after the investigations ceased. Twenty-six footnotes are provided.