The governor's Oklahoma Justice Reform Task Force released a report Thursday containing 27 recommendations aimed at alleviating prison overcrowding and reducing the state's incarceration rate while protecting public safety. The Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and other state prisons are facing critical funding issues. [Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman Archives]

Faced with a rapidly growing prison population in a state with the second-highest incarceration rate in the nation, a task force created by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin issued a report Thursday calling for dramatic decreases in sentences for nonviolent drug dealers and manufacturers.

Without reform, Oklahoma is on pace to add 7,218 inmates over the next 10 years, requiring three new prisons and costing the state an additional $1.9 billion in capital expenditures and operating costs, the report said.

But task members said those costs can be averted and the prison population can be reduced 7 percent over the next decade through a combination of sentence reductions and other reforms, including increased funding for alternative mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.

Oklahoma currently has 61,385 individuals in its overcrowded prison system.