STATE'S EMPHASIS ON PAROLE, NOT PRISON

Hawai'i is not a lock-'em-up state. Not yet.

Certain law-breakers are much more likely to get a chance at probation or
be released on parole than in many other places.

"We don't have hanging judges in Hawai'i who lock up pretty much everybody
who comes into their courtroom," said John Peyton, director of the
Department of Public Safety.

With jails and prisons packed to the bursting point, there's nowhere left
in the state to lock up more people anyway. It's much cheaper to supervise
offenders out of custody, and it gives them a chance to work and pay taxes
instead of draining public resources while sitting in prison.

But many prisoners simply must be locked up because they're dangerous. And
sentencing laws require the incarceration of others.

"We have already wrung out of the system almost everybody you can wring
out," Peyton said.

Probation and parole also give criminals the chance to commit new crimes
and tax the system if they remain unemployed.

And Hawai'i does not have the proper tools in place to minimize such
threats or provide the treatment necessary to break addictions to crystal
methamphetamine and other drugs.

Caseloads for probation and parole officers have steadily increased,
leaving them swamped with offenders to supervise and with less time for the
field work required to keep a close watch.

"Right now, it's really hard to provide adequate parole supervision and
guarantee public safety with the amount of officers we have versus our
caseload," said Hawaii Paroling Authority administrator Tommy Johnson.

Most parole and probation officers supervise twice as many offenders as
their counterparts did in years past. Some carry caseloads of up to 175
offenders each.

Offenders deemed low-risk receive virtually no probation supervision, and
check in with officers once or twice a year unless they commit a new crime
or trigger community complaints.

But those addicted to drugs often require much more attention.

"You're not only dealing with someone who has committed an offense," said
Joan Sakaba, state probation program specialist. "You're dealing with a
person who has multiple issues. If you don't deal with those issues, the
person will continue to spiral down."

One way the state is stretching its resources is to have a variety of its
agencies work together to standardize the way offenders are assessed, so
that treatment programs are used effectively and services aren't
duplicated. And probation officers are being trained in new interviewing
techniques designed to convince offenders that although officers have the
power to seek incarceration, they also are there to help.

"What the motivational interviewing is doing is helping them to begin to
look at why they need to change, helping get them to the point where they
want to change," Sakaba said. "It's engagement, but it's also setting
boundaries. Because with this population, they also need to know that
they're making choices, and some of those choices are going to be choices
that are going to put them back into prison."

The goal is cognitive restructuring - changing the way someone thinks. But
help is not always available to make a change happen. Even when required by
the courts to complete a drug-treatment program, offenders can't always get in.

The number of state-financed treatment slots are limited, and insurance
doesn't always cover what's necessary. The state's own healthcare program
for low-income people denies coverage if a person hasn't used drugs in 30
days - even if they've been in jail for months and didn't use drugs simply
because they were not available.

"Because we can't get them in right away, some of them start using, and we
lose them," Sakaba said.

And the change in focus hasn't been easy on probation officers either,
because the timing has been dictated largely by the availability of federal
grants that must be used or lost, state Judiciary Adult Services
administrator Ron Hajime said.

"It hasn't been at a pace where we can manage everything that's coming at
us, so I've lost some staff because of that," he said. "Either they've been
disappointed, or they've been burdened by this immense change that's
occurring on top of their current work load. It's been hard."

More treatment has been made available to parolees, but it's also very
limited, Johnson said.

"The number of parole violators we're returning to prison for substance
abuse is going down a little bit only because now we have money to refer
them to programs that we didn't have before, and we couldn't let them
continue their behavior on the outside and break into my house or yours at
2 o'clock in the morning to get money for drugs," he said.

The Paroling Authority is asking lawmakers for $353,000 to expand treatment
programs next year. Johnson said much more is needed, but he recognizes
state resources are limited.

"We need millions for substance-abuse treatment, to be honest with you," he
said.