The eligibility for electronic monitoring of inmates in Oklahoma has increased. The electronic monitoring program is for inmates in the custody of the Department of Corrections who are sentenced for a nonviolent offense. The electronic monitoring program requires active supervision of the inmate in a community setting with monitoring by a global positioning device.
An inmate no longer must be incarcerated for at least 90 days to be eligible. That time requirement is gone and is replaced with a requirement that the inmate have a “home offer.” There was a previous exclusion of inmates serving a sentence over five years (with 11 months or more left on their sentence). That exclusion has been modified to exclude only those serving a sentence exceeding ten years (with 24 or more months left on their sentence). This legislation clarifies that inmates convicted of a violent offense or an 85% crime within the previous 10 years are ineligible. An inmate is now eligible for electronic monitoring if he or she has been:
- Convicted of drug trafficking;
- Denied parole within the previous 12 months; or
- Removed from the Electronic Monitoring Program or any other alternative to incarceration authorized by law for violation of any rule or condition of the program and reassigned to imprisonment in a correctional facility.
Previously, inmates who escaped from any penal or correctional institution within the previous ten years were ineligible. Now, only those who have escaped from medium or maximum institutions are ineligible. HB 2630 modified 57 O.S. § 510.9. It went into effect on May 8, 2018. Sources: HB 2630 & 57 O.S. § 510.9
Arrested in Oklahoma? Call Oklahoma criminal defense lawyer Frank Urbanic in OKC at 405-633-3420.