Senate Bill 624 Summary

• Requires county boards of commissioners and public defenders to provide and coordinate training in nationally-recognized defense seminars and evidence-based practices for substance abuse and mental health treatment for public defender attorneys.

• Mandates the District Attorneys Council provide training including domestic violence dynamics, victim trauma and neurobiology, dominant aggressor identification, batterer tactics, Victim Protection Orders, and victim's rights.

• Requires the Administrative Office of the Courts to provide annual domestic violence educational training for judges covering the same curriculum topics as district attorney training.

• Modifies the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System Executive Director's duty to promote education and training of indigent defense attorneys using nationally-recognized defense seminars and evidence-based behavioral health practices.

• Becomes effective November 1, 2017.