More of Oklahoma’s nonviolent offenders will soon qualify for the state’s Electronic Monitoring Program thanks to legislation signed into law.

Sen. Bill Coleman, R-Ponca City, said Senate Bill 456 addresses two eligibility issues within community sentencing to help nonviolent offenders re-enter society while keeping predators out of the program.    

“This bill improves our community sentencing statutes by ensuring those who committed low level crimes and don’t present a danger to society can return to their families and the workforce. This will allow them to become productive members of society while lowering incarceration costs and prison overcrowding,” Coleman said. “It further adds some instances of child abuse and neglect as well as vulnerable adult exploitation to the violent crimes list, ensuring these predators don’t qualify for the program.”   

Requested by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, SB 456 eliminates the current eligibility requirements that keep inmates sentenced between five and ten years from participating in Electronic Monitoring Program. The new law will allow all sentence lengths to be eligible for the program once a nonviolent offender is within three years of release.