ICE EPIDEMIC GROWS, OVERWHELMS PRISONS

As the state Legislature convenes this week, lawmakers will consider many
ways of combating the ice epidemic and how to pay for proposed solutions.
Gov. Linda Lingle's administration will have an equally important role.

In a four-part series beginning today, The Advertiser focuses on the
serious impact ice is having on Hawai'i's crowded jails and prisons, and on
the lives of those behind the walls.

Hawai'i is at a crucial crossroads in its long struggle to control the
abuse of crystal methamphetamine and manage a wave of prisoners that has
swamped the state.

More than a decade after ice became one of the state's most serious
problems, public awareness and concern are at an all-time high.

Decisions made in the coming months could have long-lasting consequences
for Hawai'i's criminal justice system - and the lives of many who tangle
with it.

Jails and prisons have no space for the continuing flood of inmates whose
crimes stem from the ice epidemic, and there is growing pressure to steer
more drug users into treatment programs outside.

But there has not been enough money available to make that happen. And most
agree that Act 161, a year-old law requiring treatment rather than
incarceration for first-time drug offenders, has major flaws. Some want to
fine-tune the law, but others want to junk it.

There also is pressure to repair and expand crumbling correctional
facilities - and to ensure that the public is protected from the theft and
violence often associated with ice abuse.

More than 1,300 Hawai'i inmates are doing time in private Mainland prisons
because there aren't enough cells for them here, and the number of state
prisoners is expected to increase by up to 1,000 more during the next four
years.

Costly Either Way

Building more prison space would require a major investment and decades of
debt payments, or require a controversial political decision to have a
private company build and run new facilities that the state would pay to use.

Filling the old lockups beyond their designed capacity and failing to
repair them is dangerous and could lead to costly lawsuits, and expanding
treatment programs for addicts wouldn't alleviate the pressure overnight,
even with widespread political support and adequate money.

Ice and the prison dilemma promise to be among the hottest issues during
the legislative session that begins Wednesday. Key lawmakers, Gov. Linda
Lingle and Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona say that both subjects are high
priorities. And with most legislators up for re-election this year, the
political climate is ripe for action.

The challenge, officials say, is to strike an effective balance: Prevent
drug abuse, rehabilitate offenders who can be helped, be ready to lock up
those who pose a threat, and keep released inmates from committing new crimes.

But some community activists say the danger is that the state will allow
pressure to become hysteria that leads to simplistic and punitive
short-term solutions. Or that politicized bickering will allow the problems
to fester.

"My concern is that the administration wants to do someone about ice, and
the Legislature wants to

do something on ice but it's an election year, and I'm just afraid they're
all going to want to do their own thing and not play together," said Pam
Lichty, president of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i.

"It would be shocking if they managed to do nothing," said Lichty, whose
nonprofit group favors more treatment for drug abusers. "But I'm very
concerned about the jockeying that a lot of people are predicting will happen."

'Great Flim-Flam'

Others warn that treatment shouldn't be viewed as a panacea, and that
addiction does not excuse crime.

"The great flim-flam is that treatment works and prison doesn't," Honolulu
Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said. "Nothing could be further from the truth.
It sounds like there's this magic pill that you give, called treatment, and
it always works, and that prison serves no function other than to make
black-booted, brown-shirted prosecutors and police go home smiling because
they've done something mean."

Treatment should not be a revolving door that allows criminals to take
advantage, he said.

"If they've gotten treated, they commit a crime, treated, commit a crime,
treated, commit a crime, well then my attitude is the treatment hasn't
worked and it's time for prison to work, which will have the salutary
effect of incapacitation," Carlisle said.

"It may not be rehabilitation, but it certainly keeps them from committing
more crimes."

Turning Lives Around

Some addicts do have a criminal mindset that will not change, but treatment
and close supervision can and does turn others' lives around, said M.P.
"Andy" Anderson, CEO of the Hina Mauka treatment center.

"And that's what we want: responsible tax-paying citizens," he said. "We
need to find ways to empower the folks who are incarcerated to get them
clean and sober and into recovery so they can work and be productive
citizens. That's what the goal is, to find a way to do that so that we're
not having all of our folks locked up."

Proposals floated so far are wide-ranging: Tougher sentences for ice
dealers and repeat offenders. More prison space, here or on the Mainland.
More treatment programs, inside and out of prison. A "boot camp" to instill
discipline and teach job skills. And a heavy focus on preventing young
people from ever starting with drugs.

Almost any course of action raises serious questions.

If new prisons are built, where should they be built? How should they be
financed? Should they be run by state employees or privatized?

If treatment programs are created or expanded, who should pay for them? How
will their effectiveness be measured? How many chances should someone be
given to get clean?

Though the ice problem is worse in Hawai'i than in many other places, drug
abuse and prison crowding are major issues across the nation.

California, Arizona, Washington and other states have moved away from tough
sentences for some drug users, sending them to treatment programs instead.

The changes are driven partly by liberals who strongly believe in
rehabilitation, but also by conservatives who don't like the high cost of
locking people up.

"There's an understanding now that incarceration is not only not effective
at addressing drug abuse, but it's counterproductive," said Roger Goodman,
director of the Drug Policy Project for the King County Bar Association in
Seattle.

"Legislatures are now, more and more, setting up systems of diversion
programs in lieu of incarceration," said Goodman, who has met with
lawmakers in Hawai'i and other states to promote such policies.

"What's interesting about these other states taking action is that it's
pretty much driven by fiscal reality," said Lichty at Drug Policy Forum.
"So it isn't like all of a sudden they've seen the light, and people are
good after all if you just give them a chance. It's more like 'we don't
have the money to keep doing this and so we have to think of a smarter way.'