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A little more than 15 years ago, I attended an Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board meeting where a member turned his back to an inmate who was asking for another chance.

The member was making a statement, whether of disgust, boredom or disrespect was unclear. But the majority’s philosophy was unmistakable: Do your time and do most of it. Rarely, did anyone receive a pardon, parole or commutation.

That was a mistake. Oklahoma is now the world’s leader in per-capita incarceration.

Our prisons bulge with inmates with costs skyrocketing to a $1.5 billion Department of Corrections budget request. A generation of drug-addicted and mentally ill Oklahomans were put behind bars instead of in treatment; hurting the workforce, tearing apart families and deepening the social costs.

Up against this wall, criminal justice reform swept into the state, most notably with the passage of two state questions in 2016 to re-classify some drug felonies as misdemeanors.

In this spirit, the attitude has changed at the Pardon and Parole Board, as I saw at February’s hearings. Members not only faced the inmates but had a more engaged interaction.