Oklahoma County Court Sees Increase In Felony Filings

Oklahoma County prosecutors are fighting an uphill battle, one that only seems to get steeper.

A record high number of felonies -- 10,043 -- were filed in 2016. 

At the same time, budget cuts left fewer people to handle them.

The two bearing the burden of this caseload are Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater and Oklahoma County Chief Public Defender Bob Ravitz. Ravitz said it is a critical situation.

Over the last four years, misdemeanor filings by the DA dropped, as more have been pushed to the municipal level.

Still, the felony charges have been steadily climbing over the years.

Prater said the solution begins in recognizing that a high percentage of these crimes are occurring in a small number of the county's zip codes.  

He pointed to six of the highest-risk areas (73108, 73111,73117, 73126, 73148 and 73129) in Oklahoma County.

"A good segment of our population doesn't seem to have a moral compass anymore and they will go out and for really unexplained reasons get involved in violent crime," said Prater.

He thinks cuts in social services that address issues such as high rates of child poverty, child abuse, domestic violence and drug abuse are some of the contributors in the rising numbers of cases. 

"If people in this state are not willing to address the issues that children are involved in, then, no matter what we do with criminal justice system the number will continue to rise," he said.

As it stands now, the DA's office has approximately 50 to 55 prosecutors carrying the increased case load.

"It is almost backbreaking," Prater said.

Decreased state appropriations prevent him from hiring more prosecutors. 

So, they have to prioritizes cases as they receive them.

"We have to prioritize the most violent offenders to make sure that if we look at anything its those offenders that we have to extract from the community because they are hurting other people," said Prater.

Both sides are feeling the strain.

Ravitz said the public defender's office is also critically underfunded and understaffed.

At least 75 percent of felony cases are assigned to his staff.

Ravitz said constitutional issues can arise given the high number of charges. 

"My fear when a lawyer has too many cases is that innocent people could potentially be convicted, or people will take plea bargains to get out of jail," said Ravitz. 

He said civil liberties are also at stake, such as the right to a speedy trial.

Although, Ravitz and Prater both say they work together to resolve those issues.

Bottom line, both sides say there's only so much they can do without community involvement. 

They suggest the state make some long-term investments to help slow the climb in crime, such as allocating more funding to programs that will help children in the areas identified as high risk. 

"If people aren't already awake, I hope this awakens them," Prater said. "We have to change the way we operate.