State wants alternatives to prison sentences
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
State law enforcement and health officials announced yesterday that they are working together to determine which treatment programs and other alternatives to prison sentences are most likely to keep criminals from returning to crime.
With drug use on the rise and prisons bursting at the seams, state officials have concluded that the "war on drugs" and "zero tolerance" approach to crime fighting, advocated across the nation during the first Bush administration, hasn't worked, said Circuit Judge Richard Perkins.
"People are realizing that it just costs too much to put everybody away," he said.
The judiciary, Health Department, Public Safety Department and attorney general, as members of the newly created "Interagency Council on Intermediate Sanctions," have agreed to share ideas and financing. They will also undertake a five-year program to determine which alternatives to imprisonment are most likely to keep criminals from violating probation or parole or committing further crimes.
During those five years, the council hopes to develop standards to assess criminal offenders' risks and needs and a statistical profile of Hawai'i's criminal population. It also plans to inventory services and treatment options available to criminal defendants and develop ways to tell whether those services and treatment options, in conjunction with court supervision, actually reduce the number of repeat offenses.
The council is an outgrowth of a program started by Chief Justice Ronald Moon in the fall of 2000 to examine links between repeat offenders and problems of substance abuse, mental illness and unemployment and other social ills.
Council members hope they will find the means of reducing the load on the judicial system by 30 percent.
Ted Sakai, who, as public safety director, oversees Hawai'i's prisons, said he hopes offering judges and probation officials a range of more effective sentencing alternatives will over the long run ease the crowding of prisons beyond capacity.
"We need to make sure that only those people who need to be imprisoned are imprisoned," he said.
Repeat offenses account for a significant part of prison overcrowding, he said. Between 40 and 50 percent of people incarcerated in Hawai'i prisons are serving time on probation or parole violations.
Bruce Anderson, state health director, said he looks forward to working with the judiciary and other state agencies in addressing drug addiction, a condition he sees as a public health problem.
Under a bill recently passed by legislators, the Health Department will have $2.2 million to use toward drug treatment programs for first-time drug offenders. Bids have already been taken and contractors are ready to begin, Anderson said.
The money will provide for the treatment of between 200 to 250 people each year, he said. The Health Department is working with the attorney general's office to determine which offenders qualify for the program.
Other money that will go toward council projects includes $58,305 in grants that the attorney general's office will use to hire a project coordinator for the first year. The Public Safety Department will provide $19,435 for Web applications, licensing fees and related costs.
