Rep. Ken Ito's Oct. 27 op-ed and The Honolulu Advertiser's excellent articles of Oct. 2-4 primarily address only part of the reasons why our prisons are overcrowded. A little history should help shed some light on the issue.

Prison overcrowding is primarily a function of four factors: the number of available prison beds; the crime rate; the number of criminals being sentenced; the length of those sentences.

In the early 1970s, Hawai'i adopted a correctional master plan that drastically overhauled our prison and criminal justice system. At that time, the number of prisoners in Hawai'i prisons was in the neighborhood of 300. That represented a prison rate (number of prisoners per 100,000 population) of about 40 — nearly the lowest rate in the nation. With a vision as flawed as Neville Chamberlain's assurances of Hitler's pacifism, the master plan assumed that the number of prisoners in Hawai'i would remain static.

The master plan was also predicated on a model that was already becoming obsolete — i.e., that prisoners should be rehabilitated and returned to society as soon as possible and not just punished. Hence, instead of building prisons, the Legislature intended to reduce the number of prison beds. The old (admittedly aging and dire) O'ahu Prison was replaced by the modern facility we see today on Dillingham Road. Prison industrial shops, gorse control and other work programs were eliminated. The emphasis was on work release, halfway houses, probation and parole. Guards became correctional officers. O'ahu Prison became O'ahu Community Correctional Center.

At the same time, however, the crime rate in Hawai'i (crimes per 100,000 population) was skyrocketing from around 20 in the 1950s to over 120 in the late 1970s. The victimized public demanded that their elected representatives enact immediate solutions to this wave of crime. Crime was the top issue in every poll. The public believed that the judiciary and the criminal justice system were too soft on crime. Anyone perceived as soft on crime was voted out of office.

So, the Legislature acted. In the late 1970s and into the 1980s, long mandatory prison terms were enacted to prevent judges from exercising any discretion. Not only were the lengths of sentences increased, but the parole system also responded by lengthening minimum terms of imprisonment. Hence, the prison rate skyrocketed from about 40 in the 1970s to about 472 today. That's why we had nearly 6,000 criminals in prison in 2004.

Contrary to the master plan, which was still being implemented, the Legislature was emphasizing punishment, not rehabilitation. In short, more criminals were going to prison for longer terms than ever before — all during a time in which the prison system was coping with a passé rehabilitative master plan.

No wonder our prisons are overcrowded. Indeed, they have been so since the late 1970s. Why we are in this mess is not the fault of any one branch of government or any one administration or any one person. It is the result of 35 years of faulty assumptions, burgeoning crime rates, understandably irate citizens, a confused prison model and finger-pointing.

The answer, therefore, requires a vision that incorporates the four causes of overcrowding. Just increasing bed space alone will not solve overcrowding so long as laws demanding more incarceration for longer terms are passed. The number of prison beds, the crime rate, the number of criminals sentenced and the length of those sentences must be handled together.

And that is the job of the Legislature, the administration, the Judiciary and the public all working in a synergistic way.

From my nearly one decade in law enforcement, I learned that the job of the criminal justice system is to safeguard the community not only from today's crimes, but from those that will be committed in the future. It is the swiftness and sureness of punishment that most guarantees a safer society. Unfortunately, punishment in Hawai'i, as it is elsewhere in the nation, is neither swift nor sure. But when it occurs, it sure is long and hard. And thus, we have overcrowded prisons.

Perhaps it is time for a new master plan, but one that avoids the mistakes while building on the lessons of the past and one that is predicated on swift and sure punishment.

Michael A. Lilly is a former Hawai'i attorney general and a partner in the Honolulu law firm of Ning, Lilly & Jones. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.