Shortly after his appointment as executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC), Steven Harpe recognized that a critical voice was absent from decision-making – the voice of over 21,000 incarcerated individuals in Oklahoma’s correctional facilities. To make meaningful improvements in facility conditions and support rehabilitation, Harpe established the Office of Offender Advocacy, appointing Nicole Flemming as chief to bring inmates’ perspectives directly to him the DOC announced in a release today.

Flemming, a long-time ODOC employee and former administrator of the Community Outreach Unit, which serves as a liaison between inmates’ families and the agency while also advocating for crime victims, took on the mission of gathering feedback from the inmate population. She began by attending inmate council meetings to hear directly from inmate representatives elected by their peers. However, to fully understand the population’s perspectives, she initiated a direct survey of the entire inmate population. This inaugural survey, conducted in November 2023, is believed to be the first of its kind nationwide.

With a presidential election only days away, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Virginia to remove non-citizens from its voter roll. In an amicus brief filed Monday, Drummond and a coalition of 25 other states argue that a preliminary injunction halting the state of Virginia from removing self-identified non-citizens from its rolls undermines a state’s authority to determine voter qualifications. Virginia’s law provides mechanisms to protect election integrity, while ensuring only U.S. citizens remain on voter rolls.

“Election integrity is non-negotiable,” said Drummond. “Voters across the country are already casting ballots for next week’s presidential election. It is critical that states have the authority to police voter qualifications and keep non-citizens from voting.”