State lawmakers and prison workers said Thursday that policy changes are needed to lower Oklahoma's incarceration rate for women — the highest in the nation — and do a better job returning women to their communities and families after they have served their sentence.

"We can have the very best re-entry program in the world. But that doesn't work if we don't have communities that welcome them back," Susan L. Sharp, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, said during a public hearing to explore possible legislation.

Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Oklahoma City, said Oklahoma's criminal justice policies have resulted in incarceration rates for women that are almost twice the national average. The state's incarceration rate for women is 131 per 100,000 residents while the national average is 69 per 100,000.

In addition, 68 percent of women in state prisons are there for nonviolent offenses, including drug offenses and related crimes.

There are about 2,600 women in prison in Oklahoma, a little more than 10 percent of the total prison population, according to state corrections officials.

"As a state we can do better. As a state, this is one No. 1 we don't want to be," said Dr. Laura Pittman, a psychologist and deputy director of female offender operations at the Department of Corrections.

Johnson's legislative assistant, Gwendolyn Fields, said Oklahoma's habitual offender law is partly to blame for the state's high incarceration rate.

"We have an almost warehousing of women in Oklahoma," said Fields, who has six felony convictions for nonviolent offenses and is a University of Oklahoma student working toward a degree in petroleum engineering.

The habitual offender law allows prosecutors to seek enhanced sentences for felony defendants convicted of two or more felony offenses within the previous 10 years. Under the law, defendants convicted of a third or subsequent felony can be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Other states have similar laws but require that the earlier convictions be for violent offenses.

"It is a vehicle for arbitrary sentencing," Fields said, calling for the law's repeal. "We're talking about people who have made two stupid mistakes."

Johnson, who presided over the hearing, was not immediately available afterward to comment on whether she plans to sponsor legislation to amend or repeal the statute.

Pittman said the state needs to emphasize more the root causes of offenses that most women are convicted of, including drug and alcohol offenses, forgery, and property crimes.

Pittman said it costs $15,000 a year to house a female inmate. She said it would cost far less to sentence nonviolent offenders to rehabilitation and other diversionary programs.

"I believe the state of Oklahoma would be better served if they didn't come to us and they got treatment," Pittman said.

Sharp said 48 percent of women who were incarcerated in 2008 had no high school diploma and 12.5 percent had no more than an eighth-grade education. In addition, two-thirds of female prisoners were physically or sexually abused as children and 75 percent experienced domestic violence or rape as an adult.

Sharp also said half of women in Oklahoma prisons are mothers with small children.

Pat Boatwright, a volunteer coordinator who works with female inmates, stressed the need to mentor women in state prisons to relieve anxieties and prepare them to reunite with their families.

"If we don't get this right, there's a lot of families with small children who are going to pay the price," Boatwright said.