Oklahoma moms locked up for their abusers’ violence might finally get a break

One mom was sentenced to 30 years in an Oklahoma prison because her abusive boyfriend broke her kids’ legs, and she wasn’t able to stop him. (He got two years in jail.) Another mom got 30 years in prison because her abuser beat her daughter. (He got 18 years.) And a jury recommended that a third mom go to prison for life because her boyfriend killed her toddler while she was away at work.

All these moms were accused of “failure to protect.” Under Oklahoma law, parents must shield their kids from physical harm if they’re aware or “reasonably” should have known that another adult might abuse the children. Most state have similar laws. The goal is to stop violence against vulnerable minors, but as I reported in an award-winning 2022 investigation and short documentary (which you can watch below), the law is often applied in a racist and sexist way: About 90 percent of Oklahoma parents incarcerated for failure to protect are mothers—disproportionately mothers of color—and many are experiencing abuse themselves, making it harder for them to intervene. At the time of our investigation, at least 55 women were locked up for this offense.

Now, Oklahoma lawmakers have a chance to amend the law. Last month, Republican state Sen. Dave Rader introduced a bill that would create an exception in the “failure to protect” statute for domestic violence survivors whose abusers harm their kids. Under SB 594, the maximum punishment for failure to protect would also change for all parents—to 10 years in prison, down from a life sentence currently. The bill would apply retroactively, allowing people who are currently serving time for failure to protect to apply for resentencing.

In the past, efforts to reform Oklahoma’s “failure to protect” law struggled to gain traction because lawmakers worried about appearing soft on child abuse. But Radar argues that his bill would actually keep more kids safe: Threatening moms with life in prison, he says, deters them from going to police after their kids are harmed. “If a caregiver has some protection knowing that they can go make this complaint to the DA or the police department, then we think we have a better chance to protect more of our children,” Rader told the ABC affiliate in Tulsa.

The bill is now in committee. Rader drafted it with support from the state’s ACLU and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, which has done extensive work advocating on behalf of abused women. “There is a clear pathway to getting it across the finish line,” says Colleen McCarty, who leads the center, adding that she hopes to use Mother Jones‘ investigation to convince more lawmakers to support these reforms.