FUNDING HOPE MAKES SENSE FOR BUDGET, CRIME

The success of a Hawaii probation system consisting of random drug
tests and quick but short jail stays has attracted national attention
and should be expanded. The Legislature should assure funding for the
program, realizing that will reduce incarceration costs overall by
reducing the state's prison population.

The system was initiated six years ago by Circuit Judge Steven Alm, a
former city deputy prosecutor and Hawaii's U.S. attorney in the
Clinton administration. The program is called HOPE, for Hawaii's
Opportunity Probation with Enforcement, and includes 1,500 of Oahu's
8,000 or so felony probationers.

Skeptics at first tended to regard the program as a slap on the
wrists of probation violators, but Alm found that those quick slaps
work better than threatening horrible punishments far in advance. Alm
said he patterned it after the parenting of his son: "If he
misbehaved, I talked to him and warned him, and if he disregarded the
warning, I gave him some kind of consequence right away."

Regular convicts on probation are notified of upcoming drug tests.
Nearly half of them were arrested in 2007, according to a yearlong
study by Angela Hawken, a professor of economics and political
analysis at Pepperdine University. Only 21 percent of the HOPE
probationers were arrested on new charges.

Her study found that HOPE probationers were 72 percent less likely to
use drugs and 55 percent less likely to be arrested than regular
probationers. They also were less likely to have their probations
revoked, resulting in lower costs for incarceration.

Hawken estimates yearly savings of $4,000 to $8,000 in incarceration
per offender. HOPE costs about $2,500 per probationer, including
costs of treatment, compared with $1,000 for regular probation supervision.

Rep. Marcus Oshiro, chairman of the House Finance Committee, said
"the data on HOPE show that it's probably one of the best and most
cost-effective ways of treating our nonviolent drug offenders." His
committee has restored funding for specialty courts and HOPE, and the
measure awaits Senate action.

Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle has reservations about HOPE,
pointing out that Aaron Susa, a defendant in the death of a
25-year-old tourist woman on Waikiki in October, was on HOPE
probation. However, all of Susa's prior arrests were for nonviolent
offenses and he likely would have been on regular probation if not in
HOPE probation at the time of the woman's death. Also, Carlisle
pointed to Corbit K. Ahn, accused in the strangling death of an
18-year-old girl in Kalihi last August. Although he had previously
been a HOPE parolee, Ahn had moved to the Big Island, which has only
regular probation.

Legislators would be derelict in failing to maintain the HOPE program
and expand it in future years. Because of the net savings, they are
unable to deny the funding on the basis of cost.