Alternatives to prisons
are neededHawaiians are sent to jail in
By Moanikeala Akaka
much higher proportion than
their rate of crimeON Oct. 29, two months before the Star-Bulletin special series was published on Hawaii inmates serving their sentences in Texas, I attended a meeting in Hilo called by state Rep. Nestor Garcia to get community input on the proposed prison on the Big Island. According to a study done by Gene Kassebaum, sociology professor at UH-Manoa, Hawaiians are 20 percent of the general population and are 20 percent of those accused of crimes coming before the judiciary. Yet Hawaiians end up being 40 percent of those who are incarcerated.
Why is it that our incarceration rate is doubled? One wonders if institutionalized racism is a contributing factor to the disproportionate number of Hawaiians behind bars, for the crimes they commit are no worse than those committed by any other ethnic group.
Overcrowding in the prison system fuels the clamor for more prisons to be built, and since Oahu residents don't want any more prisons on their island, there is a push for it in Ka'u.
Sending inmates to Texas in the still of the night has been the state's only other answer, separating families and loved ones.
The question remains: Must there be an overcrowding problem to begin with?
Doctors Kim Thorburn and Terrence Allen, who worked in our prison system for years, estimate that "only about one-third of our prisoners need incarceration. These are violent criminals, predatory child molesters and the career criminals."
Both doctors were members of an ad hoc prison committee that I headed when I was a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Martha Toynbee, a criminologist at Halawa Prison for two decades, was also a committee member. All three agreed that:
1) Most people were in jail for drug-related crimes.
2) This was a health issue, not a penal problem.
There is a need for more substance abuse programs and not necessarily for more prison cells, to eliminate overcrowding.
Adequate drug treatment in the prison system has been lacking, yet several times a month we hear about prison guards on all islands being busted for selling crystal meth and other drugs behind bars.
Judge Aiona's Drug Court on Oahu is proving to be a successful alternative to incarceration; this program is needed on all islands.
It should frighten the public to know that prisons are the fastest growing industry in today's America. At $100,000 to build each cell, and $30,000 a year to keep an inmate there, without much needed drug treatment, taxpayer dollars are being wasted that are desperately needed for education, social services and other life-sustaining areas in our community.
We have seen enough lack of vision and foresight. There has to be a desire to really make a difference.
We need programs that are designed to reconstruct lives in a positive way. This can be done and has been done in a number of places.
As a Hawaiian, though, I'm concerned by this disproportionate representation of kanaka maoli in jails, showing a waste of human potential. There have got to be other alternatives, because the present approach is not working. Why use mainland alternatives through privatization for local problems?
One would think we could utilize our own unique cultural values in productively approaching the problems of the incarcerated. For example, kupuna programs have had a positive effect but were stymied by prison officials.
We need more of a Hawaiian approach toward healing problems of Hawaiians, for the sake of the inmates, their families and the community at large.
Moanikeala Akaka is a former trustee of the
Office of Hawaiian Affairs, who lives in Hilo.