[ OUR OPINION ]

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Prisons director’s exit
arrives at untimely moment

THE ISSUE As the state's inmate population continues to rise, it finds a vacancy at its top prison job.

THE resignation of the state's prisons administrator comes at an inopportune time, just as the U.S Department of Justice reports that our state has the fifth-highest growth in inmate population in the nation.

While Department of Public Safety Director John Peyton's departure isn't likely to hold back Governor Lingle's goal of overhauling prisons and jails, it does make the task more difficult. She will have a hard time convincing taxpayers that new facilities that could cost up to $1 billion are as essential as other demands in education and transportation.

By the Justice Department's count, Hawaii has seen a 7.5 percent increase in prisoners -- from 5,423 to 5,828 inmates -- from 2002 to 2003. However, state records show that as of Nov. 1, that total had grown to 6,063, with 1,709 being housed in facilities outside Hawaii.

Peyton, who was appointed to the position less than two years ago, said the state had anticipated the increase with a plan to replace most of its prisons and jails, and to expand facilities in all four counties by 2013. He had also been a proponent of using treatment for drug offenses to minimize incarceration.

Hawaii has had a history of problems at its prisons, emerging a few years ago from 14 years of federal court supervision to bring facilities into compliance with national standards after overcrowding and safety concerns drew lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union. Prisons have remained above capacity, forcing the state to send inmates to private facilities in Oklahoma, Arizona, Mississippi and Colorado.

The public safety department also has been a revolving door for directors. Peyton, who will be returning to Bosnia where he had been a key official in setting up its legal systems, was the third person named to head the agency since Lingle became governor. The change in leadership indicates the difficulties of the job as well as a dearth of qualified individuals willing to take the position.

Lingle isn't the first governor to face the challenges of revamping prisons. Ben Cayetano was repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to persuade the state Legislature and the public to approve various proposals.

In departing, Peyton noted that Hawaii's prison problems, "festering for 20 years," won't quickly be fixed and can't be done cheaply. "Every day, the costs go up," he said.

Lingle recognizes that the state cannot continue to defer the predicament further. She and the Legislature should persist in their plans to resolve the long-standing problem.