Posted on: Sunday, January 12, 2003

EDITORIAL
Parole violators not worst of our problems

The Hawai'i Paroling Authority is placing high priority on the arrest of 374 parolees wanted on charges of violating conditions of their parole.

We wonder where, exactly, they plan to park these 374 bodies. The state's prisons are seriously overcrowded, and we already ship about 1,300 inmates to Mainland facilities.

"The main reason we're doing this," said Tommy Johnson, paroles and pardons administrator, "is to get these folks off the streets. 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."

Those two sentences from Johnson contain a great deal of food for thought:

• Of all the people we should be getting off the streets, these folks are not top priority. Sure, they committed truly serious offenses, but they served their prison time long enough and well enough to win release on parole.

The paroling authority wants them back inside because they've violated the conditions of their parole, and often these violations amount to missing curfew, failure to call their parole officer on time and failing drug or alcohol tests. Yes, those are violations of rules the parolees signed off on, but they are not new, serious crimes.

• Putting them back inside "would lessen the chances of them committing another crime," says Johnson. Since when do we imprison people because they might commit crimes?

• Putting them back inside will "allow them to get the proper rehabilitation and drug treatment," says Johnson. We don't know whether to laugh or cry at this statement. The last statistics we've seen said less than 10 percent of the inmates who need it get treatment of any sort. By and large, our prisons are warehouses, and not, as they are misnamed, "correctional centers."

Hawai'i's prison population is already peopled with a high percentage of parole violators. We'd suggest that the arrest and prosecution of those who are feeding our crystal methamphetamine epidemic and running car-theft rings should be a much higher priority than chasing parole violators.