Editorials

Tuesday, August 28, 2001

State might not need
to build more prisons

The issue: A leveling off of the
nation's inmate population may
bring an end to the need for
more prison construction.

THE prison population boom of the past three decades may have reached its crest, which should give pause to those who have perceived the need for expansion of Hawaii's correctional facilities. Continued incarceration of some Hawaii prisoners in private facilities on the mainland and development of alternatives to imprisonment of some inmates now appear more prudent while the trend appears to shift.

Hawaii confines about 1,200 of its 5,100 inmates in privately operated prisons in Minnesota, Arizona and Oklahoma. That costs the state about $50 a day per inmate, compared to a daily cost of $80 to $90 to keep an inmate in Hawaii's prisons. Hawaii is one of five states that house at least 20 percent of their inmates in private facilities. The state's prisons remain overcrowded, exceeding architects' designs and the capacities envisioned for existing staff and services.

Drug abuse and crime rates that began increasing dramatically in the 1970s, prompting tougher sentencing laws, caused the nation's state prison population to soar from less than 200,000 in 1972 to the present 1,236,476, according to a Justice Department report. The average annual growth rate of the state prison population during the 1990s was 5.6 percent nationally -- 7.6 percent in Hawaii.

Last year, though, the nation's state prison population grew by only 0.7 percent, and the head count actually declined by 6,200 inmates, or 0.5 percent, in the last six months of the year. In Hawaii, the inmate population in 2000 rose by 3.1 percent -- much more than the national figure but less than half its average annual rate of increase during the 1990s. The national decline is attributed to the falling crime rate, new attitudes about offering alternative treatment to drug offenders and a greater willingness by parole officers to help parolees instead of returning them to prison for minor violations.

"I think it is a very significant development," said Alfred Blumstein, a renowned prison expert and professor of criminology at Carnegie Mellon University. "It is really the first change in direction in 30 years in the march towards incarceration."

Governor Cayetano last year vetoed a bill that would have authorized construction of a privately operated prison on the Big Island because it would have given the United Public Workers union an unfair advantage in bidding for the contract. The governor then abandoned efforts to build a new prison because of other budgetary considerations. That may have been a fortuitous retreat.

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Lead paint in schools
is hazard for all ages

The issue: Three Head Start program
sites were shut down because of the
health risk at Oahu public schools.

If lead paint in public school classrooms poses a health hazard for children in Head Start programs, it certainly is dangerous for older children who may use the same facilities. That the state Department of Education's standards for lead paint exposure differ from the more stringent ones of the Department of Human Services does not negate the health risks of lead paint.

Three Head Start programs -- at Wheeler, Kahaluu and Waiahole elementary schools -- have been closed this year because of the paint hazard. Although lead paint is deemed unsafe for the Head Start children, generally 4 years old and younger, the DOE continues to allow school-age children to use the same rooms. At some schools, facilities used by Head Start in the morning are used in the afternoon by elementary school children in A+ programs.

A DOE assistant superintendent described the department's lead paint standard as "zero risk" while the human service department's is "zero tolerance." The explanation for the difference is that younger children are more likely to put a stray paint chip into their mouths than older children. However, the Consumer Product Safety Commission points out that although eating paint chips is one way young children become exposed to lead, it is not the most common. More frequent exposure comes from inhaling or ingesting lead paint dust from deteriorated surfaces.

Lead poisoning can cause irreversible brain damage and retard mental and physical development. Although young children are the most vulnerable, the commission says, older children, pregnant women and adults with high blood pressure also are at risk. In adults, it can cause irritability, poor muscle coordination and nerve damage.

The federally funded Head Start, which uses the facilities at 21 public schools free of charge, cannot afford the cost of inspecting the rooms it uses, nor can it afford to have the paint removed. Even if it could, other parts of the school used by the program's children, such as bathrooms, still may present lead paint risks, says Roland Gella, director of Oahu Head Start. Further, the rooms Head Start uses can differ from year to year.

Gella argues that the DOE should inspect the facilities, which it last did in 1998, and take corrective measures. The DOE, already strapped for cash, would be hard pressed to do so. However, the well-being of children as well as adults cannot be ignored. Unsafe is unsafe, no matter which department's measure is applied.

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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.

Don Kendall, President

John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com

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