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Oklahoma’s 2026 criminal justice reform package includes a new law designed to make expungement more accessible automatically for people whose records become eligible after years of compliance, along with changes affecting good-time credit calculations, medical parole referral decisions, and oversight of failure-to-pay warrant practices.
The reforms were signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt earlier this month and build on a broader effort in the state to reduce long-term barriers that people can face when background checks still show older cases, even after probation ends and sentences are completed. The legislation sets out major deadlines for an online expungement process and for an automatic system aimed at clearing eligible records across Oklahoma. (The Associated Press story describes the package as an effort to expand access to expungement and related reforms.)
One person who said she experienced that lingering stigma is Corri Williams, who completed probation for a burglary conviction five years earlier but described continued obstacles after the conviction, including difficulty finding work and other opportunities once employers ran background checks. Williams said prospective employers withdrew offers even after she completed probation, and she pointed to the fact that the underlying charge still appeared in records. She also said she expects the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board may recommend her for a pardon later this year and that a new state law could make expungement more accessible for people with eligible records.
The core expungement law is Senate Bill 2030. It directs the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to launch a free online portal for expungement requests by Nov. 1 and to have an automatic expungement system in place by Nov. 1, 2027, with all eligible records cleared by the end of 2029. The legislation defines a “clean slate” category of eligible records, including arrests with no conviction and pardoned offenses, as well as misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, as long as the person has not been charged with a new crime and at least five years have passed since the completion of the sentence.
The law also preserves a role for prosecutors and law enforcement in any automated process. The arresting agency and the district attorney who prosecuted the crime will retain the right to object to expungement under the automated system, even as the system is designed to reduce the need for many individuals to file manually. The Associated Press report said advocates view the changes as building on a “Clean Slate Act” that lawmakers passed in 2022, after implementation delays tied to technical issues.
Courtenie Jackson, an employment coordinator for the Oklahoma County Diversion Hub, said she has seen how criminal records can limit opportunities for people even when the underlying conduct was nonviolent. Jackson described being rejected from jobs, housing and volunteer opportunities because of two nonviolent felony convictions from the mid-2010s, and she said she intends to apply for expungement once the OSBI’s expungement request portal launches. Jackson said advocates estimate the automatic system will help people who are underemployed or have dropped out of the workforce entirely, citing the Clean Slate Initiative’s estimate that more than 300,000 Oklahomans would benefit once the automatic system is fully operational.
Other 2026 reforms address how the state calculates good-time credits in prison and how medical parole referrals are handled, while also requiring new county reporting tied to failure-to-pay warrant practices. Senate Bill 1213 modifies the Department of Corrections’ formula for calculating good-time credits so that prisoners with a class 3 or 4 designation begin earning credit at an accelerated rate upon receiving their judgment and sentence, rather than after being processed into state custody. The bill takes effect Nov. 1 and, the Associated Press report said, could affect upwards of 1,000 prisoners connected to the county jail backlog, in part because sentenced people can spend months awaiting processing into state custody in some counties.
The Associated Press report also said the bill’s sponsors and supporters expect that the change can help encourage good behavior by making it easier for eligible prisoners to access programming, job opportunities and early release sooner once they enter state custody. Emily Barnes, founder of the Hooked on Justice prisoner advocacy group, said she expects the change to provide incentive for staying out of trouble during incarceration and described how certain rule violations can wipe away accumulated credit under Oklahoma’s system.
Senate Bill 1255, also effective Nov. 1, focuses on medical parole by removing a requirement that the Department of Corrections director approve medical parole referrals and shifting the decision-making authority to the agency’s chief medical officer. The Associated Press report said the change follows a decline in Oklahoma’s medical parole rate since 2021 and describes a dispute over the Pardon and Parole Board’s authority. It said the Pardon and Parole Board asked the attorney general for an opinion in October about whether it could bypass the Department of Corrections and place inmates on its medical parole docket, and that the attorney general ruled in December that such action would be unlawful.
In addition, House Bill 3321 takes aim at the way Oklahoma counties handle court fines and fees collection, particularly concerns about failure-to-pay arrest warrants. The Associated Press report said the measure creates a committee tasked with submitting an annual report that includes county-level counts of people booked solely on failure-to-pay warrants and how long they were held, as well as how many third-party vendors each county uses for debt collection and information on how much money is collected using court cost compliance programs and collected per person after a failure-to-pay warrant is executed. The first report is due on Dec. 31, and beginning in 2027 the reports are due on Nov. 15, according to the Associated Press account.