Prisoners three to a cell. Prisoners shipped to the Mainland. And now, prisoners in temporary shelters.

The state's ongoing struggle to find room for its growing inmate population took on a panicky air last week, when it announced plans to install tent-like structures to house lower-risk convicts.

It was the latest in the state's patchwork quilt of temporary fixes to a chronic and critical problem, exacerbated by years of weak political leadership and poor long-term planning.

This time, the state was forced to act under the gun: It had to use $13 million in federal funds by Oct. 19 — or return the money. With the state hard-pressed for cash, giving up millions of dollars would have surely been a bitter pill to swallow.

They should have seen this one coming a long time ago — the money was originally awarded in 1996, and was intended to contribute to the state's plans to build an 800-bed jail and transition facility in Pu'unene on Maui.

Indeed, that was the plan as of last July. But except for $1.4 million in state funds spent so far on planning, the Maui jail project has been delayed to the point that the federal money couldn't be spent in time. And so the Department of Public Safety was forced to get creative.

The state's new plan attempts to chip away at some of the intractable problems facing our corrections system today: overcrowding, shipping inmates to the Mainland and lack of facilities for rehabilitation programs.

The primary structures, two on Maui, two on Kaua'i and three on the Big Island, would house up to 448 minimumsecurity or communitycustody inmates, putting them in a setting more appropriate to their sentences and easing overcrowding at Hawai'i's higher-security facilities.

This should also help keep inmates in Hawai'i and closer to family and friends, a proven benefit in helping re-integrate the inmate into society and reducing recidivism.

The plan also includes structures for expanding inmate drug treatment programs on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island, and renovations to provide additional space for nonviolent juvenile offenders.

But these buildings — Sprung Instant Structures, made from a membrane stretched over an aluminum frame — are not a substitute for a coherent long-term corrections strategy.

Tougher sentencing rules have helped increase the number of male inmates in prisons and jails by 16 percent between 2000 and 2007. During the same time period, the number of female inmates increased by 33 percent.

Without enough beds or sensible alternatives to incarceration, we have been forced to export many of our inmates to private prisons elsewhere. Currently there are more than than 1,900 men and 170 women in Mainland facilities.

Studies have shown that long separation from home and family leads to increased gang activity — which eventually comes home to haunt us when the inmates are released back into society — and a breakdown of families, in some cases leading the children of inmates down the same path as their parents.

The eventual cost to society outweighs the cost savings of shipping our inmates away.

Clearly, more prison space in Hawai'i and smart sentencing guidelines that would provide alternatives to incarceration have long been needed. But as is the case with other hard-to-swallow projects, such as landfills, our elected leaders — Democrats and Republicans alike — simply have not had the political courage to expeditiously find sites for and follow through on new prisons. Let's hope that changes soon.

The use of temporary structures for inmates should be just that — temporary. Permanent, long-term solutions require political leadership; let's have a deadline for that.