Posted on: Wednesday, June 9, 2004

Prison population up 1.7 percent

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — Growth in the state's prison and jail population slowed slightly last year, but some observers warn that a new state law imposing tough penalties on "habitual property offenders" may cause a surge of new convicts to enter the system.

The state's prison and jail population grew by about 1.7 percent in the year ending June 2003, to an all-time high of 5,635 inmates, according to a report by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The 1.7 percent growth rate is far below the record Hawai'i set in 1997, when the state added 23 percent more inmates in a single year and led the nation in growth in the number of prisoners.

Still, state officials are concerned about crowding and the cost of housing Hawai'i's inmates. The state this year will house about 1,600 convicts in privately run prisons on the Mainland because there is no room for them in Hawai'i facilities, and will keep another 99 inmates in rented cells at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu.

Carter Goble Associates, a private consultant that has studied the state system, has recommended the state spend $1 billion over the next 10 years to more than double the capacity of the prison system. State lawmakers this year approved planning or construction money for a number of projects suggested by the consultant.

Overall, Hawai'i's prison and jail population grew by more than 80 percent from 1993 to 2003, a period during which the total state population grew by about 7 percent.

Kat Brady, legislative liaison for the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i, said Hawai'i's prison population continues to swell even as the rates of property and violent crime have declined, and said she is worried that the new law imposing tougher penalties for repeat property offenders will aggravate the problem.

Act 49, signed by Gov. Linda Lingle last month, created the offense of "habitual property crime" that allows prosecutors to charge some repeat misdemeanor offenders with felonies for crimes that today would be classified as less serious misdemeanors.

Under the new law, any person accused of a misdemeanor property crime who has had three felony or misdemeanor property crime convictions in the previous five years could be charged with "habitual property crime," which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The new law mandates that habitual property crime offenders serve at least a year in jail for the new offense. Property crimes covered by the law would include offenses such as criminal property damage, theft, burglary, forgery, credit-card fraud and criminal trespassing.

"What that will do is dramatically increase the prison population, and I think that bill sort of goes in line with the administration's desire to increase (the capacity of) all the jails and prisons in Hawai'i" under the plan proposed by consultant Carter Goble, Brady said.

Brady contends that many inmates would be better off in community drug treatment and other programs that also would be much cheaper for the state to operate. Most property-crime offenders steal to get money to feed their drug addictions, and those people need treatment and marketable job skills, she said.

The bill was proposed by the state attorney general's office. Deputy Attorney General Kurt Spohn said no one knows whether the new law will increase the inmate population.

The computer model the state uses to calculate the impact of sentencing legislation on prison population does not have data on misdemeanor offenses, and therefore there is no hard information on what impact the new law will have, he said.

But Spohn said the law actually might reduce the prison population if it deters criminals, and said concerns that it might aggravate prison overcrowding are "just speculation."

The new law makes sense as a way to deal with thieves who make a "career" out of preying on tourists, he said.

Some thieves are convicted of misdemeanor offenses such as breaking into cars over and over, and are repeatedly sentenced to probation, Spohn said. That is a relatively small number of people, but Spohn said he believes they account for a sizable percentage of property crimes.

"We're talking about a person who's just doing it all the time," Spohn said. "The idea behind this bill is, sooner or later there's got to be an end to it."

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.