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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Bad check counselors
need to modify attitudeQuestion: Whatever happened to the city prosecutor's Bad Check Restitution Program? What happened to all that money and how many people did they get?
Answer: The program, which was launched in December 2000, is considered a success and looking to expand to the neighbor islands.
Established in many other mainland cities, the program was started here by Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle as a means of helping local merchants recoup losses from bad checks, but without cost to them or to taxpayers, and without adding to the burden of the criminal justice system.
From January 2001 through April of this year, the Bad Check Restitution Program has given Honolulu merchants back $315,453 from bounced checks, said Jim Fulton, spokesman for the city Prosecutor's Office.
During that time, 1,497 people have had to attend a mandatory eight-hour class -- at their expense -- as well as make good on the bad checks they wrote, he said.
In exchange, they avoided criminal prosecution. The program is not targeting chronic bad-check writers, but those who may just have had budgeting problems.
"By and large, from the vendors' point of view, it works," Fulton said.
Carlisle has been talking with other members of the Hawaii Prosecuting Attorneys Association to see if the program can be established on the other islands, as well, he said.
However, Fulton acknowledged there have been many complaints about the "insensitivity" and "attitude" of employees of American Corrective Counseling Services, which is contracted to seek payment from the bad-check writers, as well as to conduct the mandatory classes.
The company runs similar programs across the country.
Here, it has been "problematic" at times in terms of having mainland people working with Hawaii people to make good on their checks, Fulton said.
Asked if he was talking about strong-arm tactics, he said "It's not strong-arming, just a lack of sensitivity as to how we do business ... There's nothing wrong with the program. It's just an attitude thing."
The complaints are "legitimate," he said, and American Corrective Counseling Services is putting together a trainee program to deal with the sensitivity issues, as well as "to explain to them the ways of the islands. We're having some input into that."
Fulton explained that the philosophy of the program is not just to get people to pay what they owe.
"Part of the reason the program works is (because) it is a behavior modification program," he said.
"We do prosecute chronic bad check writers," Fulton said. But, with this program, "the idea is to get people who don't budget well to modify their behavior. They're required to take a class and pay for the class."
Fulton said that if the Prosecutor's Office were to run the program, it would probably spend $400,000 to collect $100,000.
This way, there is no cost to taxpayers because, while the restitution goes to the vendors, the counseling services company gets its money by charging each person $125 for the eight-hour class. The classes currently are held in Downtown offices leased from the University of Phoenix.
Fulton noted that many people get in trouble because they ignore the first notice they may get from a business about a bad check.
The notice asks that the check writer "come down and take care of it. They typically, half the time, ignore that first response," he said. "If they're honest and just made a mistake and take care of it, then (the case) doesn't get into the (Bad Check Restitution) program. Then it's just a relationship between the vendor and themselves."
But, the people involved often "don't perceive the seriousness of it," or say they don't remember getting a notice, Fulton said.
Even with that, "We're not after the guys who inadvertently write one bad check," he said. If those people can show a legitimate reason why a check bounced, then the prosecutor's office has the power, "without any question from ACCS, to close the case and not have it go further."
To be eligible for the Bad Check Restitution Program, the amount being sought can't be more than $1,500 (a single or multiple checks); the check was received in the City and County of Honolulu and was processed by a bank; a courtesy note is first sent to the check writer allowing 30 days for a response; and a photo ID was recorded at the time of the transaction.
There is no minimum dollar requirement.
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