Posted on: Friday, January 10, 2003

Roundup of parole violators planned

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Hawai'i Paroling Authority is working with state sheriffs and Honolulu police on a more aggressive plan to round up 374 parolees wanted on charges of violating conditions of their parole.

Tommy Johnson, paroles and pardons administrator at the Hawai'i Paroling Authority, said his agency has asked for the assistance of the two law enforcement agencies to help with a backlog of arrest warrants for the parolees.

Representatives from all three organizations met Jan. 3 to discuss how to round up the parole violators, who have convictions ranging from murder and sex assault, to property crimes.

Johnson said paroling officials fell behind in serving the warrants because of a lack of manpower.

The 374 cases are part of a backlog of outstanding warrants that was as high as 75,000 earlier this year that was also the result of a limited number of sheriffs deputies. Those warrants included traffic and misdemeanor cases. Paroling officials, police and sheriffs will place high priority on arresting the 374 parolees, according to Johnson.

"The main reason we're doing this is to get these folks off the streets," Johnson said. "But in doing so, it would lessen the chances of them committing another crime, and allow them to get the proper rehabilitation and drug treatment."

The list of sought parole violators include five convicted sex offenders, and four others convicted of either murder or manslaughter, said Johnson, who declined to name the parolees. The remainder are mostly non-violent criminals convicted for burglary, theft and auto theft and make Hawai'i's property crime rate one of the highest in the country.

The paroling authority is classifying the parole violators based on their criminal records and passing on detailed files of each violator to police and state sheriffs, according to Johnson. State sheriffs and Honolulu police will then coordinate their resources on how to pick up the violators.

"Of course, we'd like the violent offenders off the streets first, but its up to the law enforcement agencies on how they want to go about bringing them in," said Johnson, who said police and state sheriffs will also be provided each parolee's last known address and assigned parole officer.

Johnson said the paroling authority is working with the law enforcement agencies because of limited staffing of state parole officers, which total 22 to handle 2,600 state parolees. The workload for each state parole officer comes out to 120 to 130 cases, compared to the national average of 60 to 65 per parole officer.

"We've been approved seven additional parole officer positions by the outgoing Cayetano administration and are requesting another eight positions this legislative session to deal with the projected parolee increase," he said.

In response to rising property crime rates, Honolulu police Chief Lee Donohue last week said his department is working more closely with the paroling authority on arresting those with retake warrants.

"We're working with (the paroling authority) on taking these criminals off the streets ... before they commit additional crimes," Donohue said.

In a separate campaign, Johnson said that within the next month or two, the paroling authority will provide more detailed information to Honolulu police on 330 other parolees classified as violent or sex offenders, those with mental health problems, or under intense supervision by the paroling authority.

The information will help police identify parole violations by the 330. Honolulu police will call in the alleged violation to the paroling authority, who will contact the parolee within 24 hours, Johnson said.

The paroling authority is also seeking to have state computer criminal records provide police officers with each parolee's criminal conviction.

"Right now the city and county can get access to the state system, but while the records will show if a person is on parole, it doesn't list what type," he said. "Our concern is that the officer knows exactly who they're dealing with and the type of conviction. "