Editorial
Prison statistics offer guidance locally

A new report out of the U.S. Department of Justice suggests that — for the first time in decades — the United States may be witnessing a slight decline in the number of Americans being put behind bars.

Be careful. The numbers, while interesting, hardly add up to a trend. Overall, the report suggests that the United States continues to incarcerate at rates far greater than most western democracies and that we are still trying to deal with our drug epidemic by putting people in prison.

The numbers for Hawai'i suggest that the picture at home is no better than it is across the nation. In fact, while there was a tiny decline in the total state prison population across the nation during the first half of 2000 (down 0.5 percent), the rate of incarceration, absolute numbers behind bars (federal and state together) and numbers of crowded facilities were all up.

Hawai'i's numbers fit the pattern: up 3.1 percent.

There is an argument that this country's high imprisonment numbers correlate to a decline in the overall crime rate in recent years. But that requires a rather simplistic one-to-one relationship between incarceration and crime rates. Even with our extremely high numbers, we are far from being at a point where we have locked away the bulk of our crime-prone population.

In too many cases, incarceration simply creates the appearance of dealing with a crime problem rather than actually solving it. This is most true in drug offenses. The bulk of research suggests that the best solution to the drug problem is treatment rather than raw incarceration.

Yes, treatment can be combined with jail time and for some fortunate inmates, that is what happens. But far too many of those sentenced receive little or no effective treatment for their addiction.

The Justice Department statistics put Hawai'i at the high end for crowded prison facilities and as one of five states with more than a fifth of our inmates housed in private (out-of-state) facilities.

For policy makers in Hawai'i, these facts and figures have important implications. We are over-capacity, growing in our prison population and at the high end in use of out-of-state facilities. That might suggest it is time to build more prisons — a proposal heard frequently.

Or, it might suggest a change in sentencing and punishment philosophy. That is, more resources and attention to drug and addiction treatment, more flexibility in sentencing for trial judges and more options for prison management so that the right people are kept behind bars.