Hawai'i's Project HOPE probation program received national attention yesterday, with a story in the Wall Street Journal and a presentation in Washington, D.C., to judicial, political and corrections officials from around the country by Hawai'i Circuit Judge Steven Alm, its creator.

Alm and Angela Hawken, a California professor who has been analyzing HOPE results since October 2007, spoke at a conference organized by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"It was a very positive session with an interesting group of people at this conference from all sides of the political spectrum," Alm said by telephone yesterday.

HOPE stands for Hawai'i's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement. It is designed to reduce probation violations through close supervision and frequent drug testing by probation officers along with immediate, usually brief, returns to jail for violators.

There are 1,260 offenders enrolled in the HOPE program.

According to her preliminary findings, Hawken told conferees, offenders in specialized probation units in Hawai'i that oversee individuals convicted of sex and domestic violence crimes showed an 85 percent reduction in missed appointments and a 91 percent reduction in positive drug tests.

Probationers in these units who are not enrolled in HOPE, however, showed a 23 percent increase in missed appointments and no change in positive urinalyses, Hawken reported.

In the general probation unit, which oversees all other offenders, including many convicted of drug and drug-related offenses, non-HOPE probationers were more than twice as likely to fail drug tests and to miss scheduled appointments, according to Hawken.

The full evaluation of HOPE, which Hawken is conducting with UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, will be completed at the end of the year.

Alm, a former U.S. Attorney for Hawai'i, began the HOPE project in 2004.

He told conferees yesterday that the program requires more initial work from probation officers but they feel "the effort is worthwhile because the offenders take probation more seriously, have a better attitude and are more compliant."

Overall, there are 7,200 probationers in the state. Probation officers handle an average of 180 cases each.

Success of the HOPE program depends in part on the promise of "swift and sure" returns to jail for probationers who violate the rules.

Alm has said that HOPE arrest warrants are given priority by the Honolulu Police Department and the Federal Fugitives Task force in the U.S. Marshal's Service.

Earlier this year, two convicted felons wanted on HOPE arrest warrants allegedly committed murders before the HOPE warrants could be served.