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New prisons are needed
to keep inmates in islands

THE ISSUE The governor is asking for funding to send more inmates to mainland prisons.

INCREASING numbers of prison inmates are being transferred from Hawaii to private facilities on the mainland, and the trend is sure to continue unless more prisons are built in the islands. Prison construction should be a high priority for legislators who began convening this month.

The Lingle administration is asking for a budget increase of $10.2 million to pay for transferring 525 prisoners to the mainland, bringing the Hawaii prison population in Colorado, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arizona to more than 2,100. About 3,850 are behind bars in Hawaii.

The outsourcing of incarceration may seem to make economic sense: The state pays $43 to $52 a day per inmate on the mainland. That compares with the daily cost of $102 in keeping a prisoner in a Hawaii prison.

However, 90 percent of the mainland-housed Hawaii prisoners commit subsequent crimes, compared with a recidivism rate of 47 percent to 57 percent of those imprisoned here. The difference has been attributed to family visitation that contributes to rehabilitation.

An analysis last year concluded that the number of Hawaii inmates will surpass 7,000 by 2008 and exceed 8,300 by 2013. It recommended expansion or replacement of prison facilities and construction of new ones.

Governor Lingle is asking the Legislature for $500,000 in planning for a 359-bed prison in West Maui to hold state pretrial detainees and inmates with short sentences. She also is asking for $8.5 million to make repairs and improvements to prison facilities.

Lingle's more ambitious proposals for increasing prison space have fallen on deaf ears in the Legislature. Former Gov. Ben Cayetano was likewise frustrated in trying to gain lawmakers' approval of prison construction. Unfortunately, legislators seem content to send Hawaii prisoners to mainland facilities, regardless of the social costs.

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More analysis could
curb family violence

THE ISSUE Law enforcement agencies are asking the Legislature to authorize a review of domestic-violence fatalities.

MANY violent crimes in Hawaii, as elsewhere, occur in the household, with relatives attacking one another. Too little is known about those conflicts, which often play out behind the closed doors of Family Court if detected in time. Twenty-nine states have created multi-agency teams to analyze the sequence of events within families that led to the ultimate fate. Hawaii should be next.

Hawaii's attorney general, county prosecutors and police chiefs are asking the Legislature to authorize the Department of Health to form such domestic fatality review teams to analyze deaths resulting from within a family and between intimates. Such reviews can only improve knowledge about how family disagreements can result in death; eight of Hawaii's murder victims in 2003 were killed by a family member, girlfriend or boyfriend.

Findings made by reviews teams in other states have resulted in changed government policies, according to Alex Alvarez, a professor of criminology at Northern Arizona University. "Increasingly," he said in a report submitted last year to a national conference on domestic violence, "we understand that violence prevention is not just a criminal justice issue, but also involves social, psychological, political and cultural issues as well."

Alvarez cited several examples of such teams gaining knowledge that led to policy changes:

» A county review team in Minnesota found a number of domestic violence cases that had been misclassifed as misdemeanors, although fitting all the criteria of felonies. The system of classifying domestic violence cases has been revised.

» A New Hampshire review team helped change court protocol so both plaintiff and defendant are notified when domestic violence protection orders are about to expire.

» In Miami/Dade County, Fla., a review team found that family and friends were aware of a history of violence in the relationship that ended in a spouse's death, but said nothing. The team helped develop a domestic awareness campaign of "Silence Isn't Golden Anymore."