Editorials
Wednesday, May 6, 1998

Plans for new Hawaii
prison must proceed

THE company that operates the Newton County jail in Texas has lost its contract. The county will replace the current operator, the Bobby Ross Group, with Correctional Services Corp., which has its headquarters in Sarasota, Fla. This decision is of interest to Hawaii because 435 Hawaii inmates are housed in the Newton County jail.

However, the Hawaii state government has nothing to do with the decision, because the state's agreement is with Newton County. This is one of the results of sending inmates out of state having no real control over their handling.

In recent months Hawaii inmates at the Newton County jail have been involved in two riots. In February three Hawaii inmates were charged with kidnapping and assaulting a corrections officer. Two months ago Oklahoma withdrew its inmates from the facility, leaving only the Hawaii inmates.

An incident-free prison experience is an unrealistic expectation, and such problems probably can develop just as easily at Hawaii facilities. But the fact that the inmates are being held thousands of miles from Hawaii makes it difficult for the state to exercise effective supervision.

This unsatisfactory situation is the result of the state's need to house its inmates somewhere in the face of extreme overcrowding in its own facilities. It is acceptable only on a temporary basis. The management change in Texas underlines the urgency of expanding Hawaii's own prison system.

Governor Cayetano is trying to build a new prison in the Kau district of the Big Island. The Legislature should provide the governor with clear authority to see this project through, either in Kau or elsewhere, without giving local opponents a veto. A new prison must be built somewhere, and soon.

Privatizing services

ONE of the key methods of improving the efficiency of government services has been to assign some of them to private companies. However, that has not been a state or county option for more than a year because of a state Supreme Court decision. Legislative action is needed to restore the option of privatization, which means bucking Hawaii's politically powerful public-employee unions.

Acting at those unions' behest, Sen. Brian Kanno last year blocked a proposal to allow privatization and has succeeded in doing so again in this year's session. As co-chairman of the Senate Human Resources Committee, Kanno has adopted the unions' ludicrous insistence that any review of government services eligible for privatization include a review of existing private contracts, making them vulnerable to cancellation.

The Supreme Court in March 1997 invalidated the privatization of a Hawaii County landfill operation. The ruling posed a threat to privatization of other services statewide by prohibiting any transfer of services historically performed by government workers to the private sector.

The Governor's Economic Revitalization Task Force recommended implementation of "public-private competition through a managed process." That sounded like a vague endorsement of privatization. It now appears to be a recommendation for hindering privatization to assure support of the larger economic package by task-force member Gary Rodrigues, whose United Public Workers union won the Supreme Court ruling.

"The state Senate leadership must do what's right for the people of Hawaii and not just what's best for Gary Rodrigues," the state's mayors said in a statement pleading for enactment of the House privatization bill in the Legislature's final hours.

Governor Cayetano gave public assurance months ago that privatization was an important piece of the economic package recommended by his task force and that Rodrigues would support it. The governor needs to reassert that position by pushing for effective legislation.

Indonesian protests

A new $1 billion loan by the International Monetary Fund is a sorely needed expression of confidence in the Suharto regime in Indonesia. The country's top economics minister said disbursement of the loan set the scene for an inflow of $7 billion from the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan, Australia and Malaysia over the next three months.

Last October the IMF announced a $33 billion loan package, with the IMF itself pledging $10 billion, after the Indonesian economy collapsed. But some of the money has been withheld because of the resistance of the government to implementing economic reforms as the price of financial support. Now it appears that the IMF is satisfied with Suharto's actions or is willing to accept less than full compliance with its requirements, on the theory that Indonesia is too important to let the government fall.

However, student protest demonstrations in major cities are growing, raising doubts about the ability of the regime to weather the storm. The police and the army apparently are under orders to use restraint in dealing with the protesters to avoid inflaming the situation. But a violent crackdown could result if the students go too far in provoking the regime.

Suharto, who is 76 and ailing, should have turned over his government to a younger leader and stepped down rather than accept another term in March. Now sharp increases in fuel prices under the economic reforms have given the protesters fresh ammunition and placed more pressure on the regime.

Of all the Asian countries affected by the economic crisis, Indonesia's situation is the most disturbing. The United States, as the chief supporter of the IMF and a concerned friend of Indonesia, should exert a stabilizing influence in an attempt to keep the turmoil from getting out of hand.

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Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor