This story was produced in partnership with The Frontier.
An Oklahoma County program gets people charged with nonviolent crimes released from jail before trial if they can't afford bail, but prosecutors try to block most defendants from participating.
The nonprofit The Education and Employment Ministry, or TEEM, runs the program. TEEM monitors participants, ensuring they appear in court and comply with drug testing and other conditions of release. Participants are connected with mental health or substance abuse treatment, employment assistance and other resources.
The program helps economically disadvantaged people who would likely be released while they wait to see a judge if they had enough money to pay bail, said Stacy Kastner, who supervises TEEM's pretrial release program.
"You could have two people charged with the same thing, and the person who can afford to get out can get out and the person who can't stays in," Kastner said. "How is that about public safety at all?"
TEEM says it screens defendants to determine how likely they are to show up to court and whether they pose a risk to the public by looking at their ties to the community, financial situation and criminal history, among other factors.
But the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office routinely opposes TEEM bonds for eligible defendants, according to numbers obtained by The Frontier and KOSU. Prosecutors objected to nearly 72% of the 2,982 people TEEM found qualified for the program in 2025. County judges make final determinations about who gets released, but local public defenders say the judge who sets defendants' bail rarely deviates from prosecutors' recommendations. In 2025, only 376 of the TEEM bonds prosecutors either opposed or didn't make a recommendation for were later approved by judges.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna said prosecutors independently consider whether a defendant poses a danger to the public or a risk of failing to appear in court when deciding who they think should stay in jail before their trial. Prosecutors are less likely to recommend a TEEM release for someone who doesn't have a listed home address or is experiencing mental health challenges because they may be harder to track down, she said.
Behenna said prosecutors will typically support TEEM release for defendants whom they view as more likely to show up to court.
"What we do right now is the low-hanging fruit," she said. "The people that have jobs, the people that have contacts with the community, people that we feel very positive about, that are going to come to court when they're required to come to court."
Advocates say poverty keeps low-risk defendants jailed
Public defenders say Judge Thomas Riesen, who sets bail and handles arraignment hearings in Oklahoma County, rarely overrules recommendations from the District Attorney's Office.
In a single week in April, district attorneys recommended release for only 11 out of 131 defendants screened for a TEEM bond. Criminal judges later approved an additional eight, bringing the number of TEEM releases that week to 19.
The Frontier and KOSU called and emailed Riesen's office several times to request comment, but did not receive a response.
Attorneys at the Oklahoma County Public Defender's Office said prosecutors often oppose releasing people who defense attorneys believe wouldn't be a danger or a flight risk with supervision and services from TEEM.
"We have people who can get them transportation, housing, any of those things, that kind of fixes the problem," said Brigitte Biffle, chief public defender for Oklahoma County. "So that person would only be detained if they're indigent and can't afford it, that's a prime example of something that should be a TEEM bond."
Just 2% of TEEM participants were sentenced to prison after being released through the program in 2025, indicating that judges found the vast majority could safely remain in the community. And 37% of participants had their cases dismissed or prosecutors chose not to file charges. Without TEEM, those individuals likely would have remained in jail while waiting for their cases to work their way through the court system.
The program helps participants gain stability, which could prevent them from reoffending and being arrested again, Kastner said. In 2025, 725 TEEM participants were connected to substance abuse treatment and services and 749 to mental health treatment. Nearly 200 gained housing and 23 individuals completed their GED certification.
Most people released from jail through the TEEM program in 2025 made their court appearances. About 84% never missed a hearing, according to quarterly reports TEEM submits to the Oklahoma County Court Clerk. The rate is consistent with national trends, according to the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies.
"I think that there are very likely people who would be fine in the community with TEEM supervision that are still in jail," Kastner said.
It's cheaper to release people pretrial through TEEM than to keep them behind bars, Kastner said. TEEM supervision averages $4.66 per participant per day, compared to the roughly $70 it costs to house someone in the Oklahoma County jail for a day.
The understaffed and cash-strapped Oklahoma County jail, meanwhile, holds around 1,500 inmates daily, and about 90% of them, on average, haven't been convicted of their charges.
Oklahoma County began contracting with TEEM to provide pretrial services in 2024 and budgeted up to $1.3 million for the program this fiscal year. TEEM estimates it saved taxpayers around $9.7 million between July 2025 and February 2026 by diverting people from incarceration.
Many arrestees don't have permanent housing
Of the more than 2,200 people who have participated in the TEEM pretrial release program so far this fiscal year, about a third were sleeping outdoors or in shelters at the time of intake, Kastner said. An additional 50% of participants were couch-surfing or "doubled up" with friends or family.
Judges and prosecutors often view people experiencing homelessness as flight risks if they previously missed a court appearance or because they don't have a listed home address, said District Attorney Behenna. Failing to appear in court in the past could be used as the sole factor to object to a TEEM bond for a defendant, she said.
"If somebody doesn't have an address where they can be contacted, there would be a fear that they wouldn't be able to appear," Behenna said. "How are we going to get a notification to them?"
Behenna said she believes TEEM doesn't have the capacity to monitor defendants who need close supervision. Prosecutors might recommend more people for pretrial release if the county increased the number of TEEM staff who monitor participants, she said. The state needs to provide more funding to fill those gaps, Behenna said.
"We don't have the resources; we don't have the funding in Oklahoma to do that supervision pretrial release piece the way it should be done," she said.
The TEEM program employs eight case managers who maintain contact with participants and monitor their compliance with release conditions. If TEEM bond participants don't have a cell phone, the program helps provide one. Case managers visit homes and homeless shelters to check on participants, too, if needed.
Kastner said TEEM has the capacity to serve more people.
Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan voted in favor of incorporating TEEM into the county's services in 2024 and believes the program helps people show up to court.
"They're forming relationships with these participants," Maughan said. "It's not just a bounty hunter coming to get you if you failed to appear in court; it's somebody that has really demonstrated they care about you, and they're trying to help you come back."
That was the case for Daniel Kingery.
Kingery was released from the Oklahoma County jail with a TEEM bond after a 2025 arrest on warrants for drug possession and driving without a valid license.
Things had been rough for him since the coronavirus pandemic. He moved to Oklahoma to be with family after a two-year stint in an Arizona prison for drug possession. His grandmother died three months before his release, and then his dad died about five months later. Injuries to Kingery's hand and face prevented him from working and he soon was living on the streets.
"Like people do, they make poor choices whenever they're going through desperate times," Kingery said. "How long are you supposed to starve before you start to steal?"
Along with a handful of drug charges and violations for driving without proper identification, Kingery was arrested four times for burglary, including an incident in Canadian County where he attempted to steal nine gallons of gas to keep his car running.
His bonds were set between $500 and $26,000 in Canadian and Oklahoma Counties for burglary and other nonviolent charges. For the $500 bond, he would have needed just $50 to pay a bondsman and be released from jail, but even that amount can be insurmountable for a person with no income.
Judges in Oklahoma County never asked about his living and financial situation when they set the amount for his release, he said. In setting bail, judges didn't consider that Kingery was experiencing homelessness and had no income.
"You feel like there's no hope. (Judges) don't listen to you," Kingery said. "You're just another number, another paper that goes across their desk."
TEEM gave him food and clothing and paid $500 toward his rent to help him get back on his feet, he said. He's been sober for nearly two years, has a steady job and lives in a sober living house in Yukon. He wouldn't be where he is today without TEEM, he said, but he knows he's one of the lucky few who are approved for release.
"I probably would have just been sitting in county jail a lot longer than I was. I would have been in there having to go through the whole cycle of court date after court date after court date until I signed a plea," Kingery said. But, "they got me out."
