PROGRAM OFFERS HOPE TO WOMEN INMATES

The Issue: The State Gives Female Offenders An Opportunity To Break Away
>From Crime And Substance Abuse.

The state prison system's new approach to help women caught in the grim
cycle of crime and substance abuse represents a change that could produce
rewards for the community as well as the women themselves. The women would
have a chance for better lives while the state's cost for law enforcement
would go down, a win-win situation all around.

Governor Cayetano earlier this year called for a shift in philosophy toward
substance abuse crimes, but the state Legislature rejected his proposal. The
governor should revive the plan and lawmakers should embrace it because it
makes far better sense to treat drug and alcohol abuse as a health problem
rather than one for police and prisons.

The state Department of Public Safety should be commended for initiating the
new program. It has contracted Hina Mauka, a substance abuse service that
has had a strong record of success since it began in 1966, to provide 50
female offenders with intense therapeutic treatment. Instead of putting
offenders in prison and releasing them back to the social environment that
led them to crime, the program helps them cope with addiction and the
domestic and sexual abuse many had experienced, provides vocational training
and delivers support even after they released.

A recent study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University showed that states spend much to deal with substance
abuse. Hawaii's costs were $368 per capita while the national average was
$299. Of that amount, only 4 percent was used for prevention or treatment
while the rest went law enforcement, prisons and court costs. At the same
time, drug and alcohol-related convictions increased, mainly by repeat
offenders.

Earlier this year, Ted Sakai, state public safety director, said the
Hawaii's prisons are filled with repeat drug offenders and that without
treatment, the majority will remain in the cycle. For female offenders, the
cycle may have more far-reaching repercussions because many are mothers who
tend to pass on abuse behavior to their children.

In 1996, Arizona began a program that deals with substance abuse as a health
problem and requires treatment instead of prison for nonviolent offenders.
The result has been a 60 percent drop in repeat offenses. With scarce
taxpayer dollars in Hawaii for building more prisons, adopting such an
approach would be fiscally responsible. It would also be more humane and
better for the community.