Deputy Attorney General Kurt Spohn said the public complains about it often: A criminal convicted of a Class A felony, which carries a 20-year sentence, is freed by the paroling authority within a few months. State law enforcers want that to stop.

The sentencing reform bill is one of 10 proposals given the state Legislature by the Law Enforcement Coalition, made up of the attorney general, county prosecutors and police chiefs.

Spohn said the bill would better pinpoint how long a prisoner stays incarcerated. The paroling panel would only have discretion over the final 15 percent of a sentence in most cases.

"If someone gets a 10-year prison sentence now, they could be let out literally the next month," Spohn said. With the proposal, "instead of zero to 10 years, it would be 8-1/2 years to 10 years."

A bill proposing that felons serve 85 percent of their sentence did not make it through last year's Legislature. The difference in this year's proposal is that judges would be given a range of sentences to impose based on their own discretion.

Judges now impose maximums but leave actual incarceration time to the paroling authority.

From 1991 to 1995, the average Class A felon served 5.5 years and in 1996, served 6.5 years, he said.

Spohn said the bill should not reflect negatively on the Hawaii Paroling Authority. "It has to function within the parameters it is given," he said, which include prison overcrowding and a federal consent decree barring the state from exceeding the number of inmates at prisons.

Besides prosecutors and police chiefs statewide, the sentencing reform measure has the endorsement of new Public Safety Director Keith Kaneshiro, Spohn said.

Other bills being introduced by the coalition would:

Expand the state's law requiring sex offenders to register with the state by making the name of the individual and other information available to the public. The information is now given only to the Police Department.

Broaden the legal definition of "robbery" to add thefts which include a "reckless disregard for causing serious or substantial bodily injury."

Toughen punishment for habitual criminal behavior. Those convicted of a misdemeanor would get mandatory sentences while a fourth conviction of theft would automatically be treated as a Class C felony.

Impose a mandatory 10-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of manufacturing dangerous drugs of any amount, including crystal methamphetamine.

Make homicide sentences stiffer, in line with the mainland.

Allow family court judges more discretion in waiving their jurisdiction over minors so they can be tried as adults.