EDITORIAL
Whoa! Not so fast on building new jail

The state certainly has a problem with overcrowding in both its jails and prisons. But its hope to build itself out of the problem as it applies to jails without thorough discussion in the Legislature is a big mistake.

First, be aware that prisons and jails are entirely different things. Prisons are long- or medium-term institutions — penitentiaries or correctional centers for convicted felons. Jails are normally used to confine people serving misdemeanor sentences, or those awaiting trial or sentencing.

The state's proposal involves replacing what passes for a jail in this state — O'ahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi — with a new jail, to be built next to the state's largest prison, the existing Halawa Community Correctional Center, in Halawa Valley.

It's clear that modern Kalihi has grown up around OCCC, limiting its security and safety. OCCC has a rated capacity for 954 inmates but now holds more than 1,100.

The state proposes to build a new jail with a capacity of as many as 1,700. As long as this facility is used as a jail only, it thus has no effect on substantial overcrowding in the state's prison facilities, which are so packed that the state has had to send 1,250 prisoners to Mainland prisons.

A possible side benefit, however, is some sort of subsequent use for the OCCC site, perhaps as a low-security state-backed halfway house or transition facility or — the most hopeful note in this entire plan so far — a possible closed treatment facility.

The state is inclined to plunge ahead with this jail project because it has found a new funding mechanism that 1) allows it to get moving quickly, which admittedly might be a refreshing change in this state; and 2) it avoids having to take this latest proposal to the Legislature for bonding approval, which might be tough to get. Schools and other needs compete.

Not so fast. This idea cries out for a thorough discussion of these (and other) issues:

• The new financing plan, which would create a trust entity to own the facility, sell the certificates of participation to investors and pay off the debt with state lease payments over 30 years, would be a lot more expensive than the usual general obligation bond.
• The facility might be privately run. Are lawmakers ready for that, particularly if it bypasses public unions?
• Although Halawa is a comparatively good place to locate such a facility, there's a crying need for a discussion of what kind of facility to build. Would it make more sense to build a prison there instead?
• And the issue of ultimate importance — an issue overlooked by the state in its plan — is whether prison overcrowding can be eliminated without any building at all, by resort to alternatives to prison sentences — serious drug-abuse treatment programs, an expanded probation system and community halfway houses and job-training programs — all nearly nonexistent today.

Current wisdom is that any new facility will be filled the minute it's completed, creating the need for yet another facility. That's because the mere warehousing of criminals tends to make them an even greater danger to society upon their release than they were when sentenced — especially because few of them receive any effective treatment for the bad drug or alcohol problem that most of them have.