Soft On Crime or Smart on Crime? by OK State Represenative Doug Cox, MD
There was a bill in the Legislature recently to legalize carrying switchblade knives. I voted against the measure. To be honest with you, I just went with my gut feeling on this one. I think it may have something to do with years of sewing people up. Regardless, the bill passed and is now in the Senate.
A bill to require a fourth year of mathematics for Oklahoma students had my support. I debated that mathematics teaches deductive reasoning. Brain scans show that learning math is one of the strongest stimulants for developing the frontal lobe of the brain, which is responsible to a large degree for ability to reason. While very few kids need math to become engineers, they can all benefit from learning the deductive reasoning that math teaches, along with better frontal lobe brain development. The bill failed and is dead for this session.
So, I was 0-2 that morning, debating for a bill that lost, and against a bill that passed. Some days are like that.
I am teaming up with state Sen. Wayne Shaw in his desire to address prison reform. I am honored to be the House author of his Senate legislation. We are working on two issues: The first is to create a privately operated facility to house aging prisoners that, through a disease process or natural aging, have grown so infirm that they are a minimal danger to society and basically have a remaining life expectancy of two years or less. We think that a “nursing home for aging prisoners” could save the state up to $6 million annually in housing these folks. I would rather spend this money on education rather than prisons.
The second idea is to help motivate prisoners to develop behaviors and habits that will decrease their time served. These behaviors, as well as classes taken, should improve their chances of staying out of prison once they are paroled or completed their sentence.
These two bills will hopefully make their way out of the Senate and over to the House. Any prison bills like these face an uphill battle because legislators fear being labeled as “soft on crime.” Sen. Shaw and I feel these bills are “smart on crime,” not “soft on crime.”
Thanks for allowing me to serve as your state representative. I take the responsibility seriously. I can be reached at dougcox@okhouse.gov or 405-557-7415.
Soft On Crime or Smart on Crime? by OK State Represenative Doug Cox, MD
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