GROUP URGES NEW TACK FOR ISLE DRUG OFFENDERS

A native Hawaiian group, PONO, is asking the state to consider
alternatives to prison for persons convicted of drug offenses.

Shane Pale -- noting that native Hawaiians are twice as likely to be
imprisoned after arrest and represent more than 40 percent of the
inmate population, according to 1998 statistics -- said at a news
conference at the state Capitol yesterday that more programs should be
offered to help.

For instance, he said, money should go to build drug treatment
prevention facilities "that will provide holistic and culturally
appropriate rehabilitation programs." And he said a special task force
should be set up to study the high incarceration rate of native Hawaiians.

Pale, who is a volunteer counselor at the Halawa Correctional
Facility, said the state should look at drug use as a medical, not a
criminal, problem.