When Steven Alm became a state judge after a career as a city and federal prosecutor, he was struck by numerous requests to send probationers to prison based on long lists of violating conditions of probation.

The violations - missing appointments with probation officers, failing drug tests, violating curfews - would date back months to justify the stiff sanction of resentencing the probationers to up to 20 years in prison.

“;This is a crazy way to change people's behavior,”; Alm recalled thinking.

Why not treat probationers the same way parents treat kids, he wondered. If they misbehave, impose “;swift and certain”; consequences.

Alm came up with a program that would do just that. In 2004 he started a pilot program for probationers in his court. He started with 34 probationers who were convicted of sex offenses or felonies related to drug use.

It called for close monitoring of the probationers, then immediately bringing them to court when they violated terms of probation. But instead of sentencing them to years in prison, Alm counseled them and, if necessary, sent them to jail for several days to send the message home.

The result is the probationers stayed out of trouble more than others who were not in the program.

Today, Alm's creation, called Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement, or HOPE, has grown to include nine Oahu judges handling about 1,350 of Oahu's 8,200 probationers.

It also has received nationwide acclaim. Alm has been invited across the country to talk about HOPE. California, Nevada and Arizona are considering adopting similar programs.

“;I really think we have a chance to change the way supervision is done in this country with probationers and parolees,”; Alm said in a recent interview.

Although in hindsight it seems like a commonsense approach, Alm said the biggest challenge was to change the entrenched way misbehaving probationers were handled and to persuade other components of the criminal justice system to give the program a chance.

Jack Tonaki, state public defender, had doubts based on the notion that long prison terms do not necessarily change people's behavior, but Tonaki said the program seems to be working because of the swift consequences.

“;It looks like it does have a positive effect of changing behavior,”; Tonaki said.

Alm credited probation officials, the Judiciary staff, prosecutors, defense lawyers, law enforcement and others who agreed to try to make the program succeed.

Alm, 55, a graduate of University High School, the University of Oregon and the University of Pacific law school (and the younger brother of Hawaiian Electric Co. executive Robbie Alm), served as a city deputy prosecutor starting in 1985 until he was named U.S. attorney for Hawaii in 1994. In 2001 he was appointed to the Circuit Court bench.

Alm's connections with law enforcement and others helped him launch the program, but it took more than those relationships to kick-start the program.

“;In Hawaii, it took the creativity, persistence and persuasiveness of a visionary judge, Steven Alm, to make the cross-agency coordination effort work,”; according to professors Angela Hawken of Pepperdine University and Mark Kleinman of the University of California at Los Angeles. Their report was called “;What a novel probation program in Hawaii might teach other states.”;

The two professors presented an evaluation praising the program at a Washington, D.C., conference of law enforcement, legislative and judicial officials sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts this year.

And because HOPE deals with many probationers facing drug issues, Alm will be the featured speaker at a Washington, D.C., symposium in January by the Institute for Behavior and Health, which calls the program “;the most promising new drug policy idea today.”;