The Fight to Reform Oklahoma's Failure to Protect Laws w/Alexandra Bailey and Cindy Nguyen

Feb 19

Today, Hunter spoke with Alexandra Bailey and Cindy Nguyen to discuss Oklahoma’s Failure to Protect Laws. A few years back, Alexandra joined the show to discuss theses laws, and as a reminder, these laws allow for victims of domestic violence, mostly women, to be sentenced to longer jail sentences for failing to protect their children from abuse than the men who commit the abuse. Today, Cindy and Alexandra join the show to discuss the fight to reform these laws.

Guest

Alexandra Bailey, Domestic Violence Survivor and Advocate

Cindy Nguyen, Policy Director, Oklahoma ACLU

Resources:

Legislation SB 594: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V4Ev1Aw4vUR7iN71ORrxD0e8xo97dM9s/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs

https://www.motherjones.com/criminal-justice/2022/08/failure-to-protect-domestic-abuse-child-oklahoma-women-inequality-prison/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/oklahoma-failure-to-protect-kerry-king-dave-rader/

Latest version of SB 594 (2/10/25)

Taking out reductions for child abuse/neglect due to having to apply retroactivity for all of them
Keeping reductions for FTP/enabling child abuse and neglect = 6 years
Affirmative defense + retroactivity

ACLU-OK Research/Stats for FTP:

1 in 4 women convicted of failure to protect received sentences longer than the man convicted of abusing the child.
93% of those convicted under failure to protect are women.
Almost half of the women convicted under failure to protect were experiencing domestic violence.

Key Stories:

Tondalao Hall – 30-year sentence compared to the actual abuser receiving a 10-year suspended sentence.

Robert Braxton Jr. abused two of her children and broken multiple bones.
Released after 15 yrs, we have direct contact with her and she can help on storytelling for campaign.

Elizabeth Crafton – 20 year sentence compared to the actual abuser receiving 11.