OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM ISN'T WORKING

I attended the Wai'anae Coast community ice forum and have some concerns and
thoughts after hearing the numerous poignant stories of broken homes and
lives due to ice addiction. In the past, being a retired federal
law-enforcement agent with the expected police mentality, I never really
appreciated the personal problems involved.

The Hawai'i criminal justice system, if it can be even called a system, is
broken. This must change. The lack of treatment and custody facilities
breeds generations of dangerous people who are routinely rotated too soon
back into the community to continue making victims of innocent citizens.
Families, churches and community efforts have not been able to stem the
tide.

Have we now reached the point where our only course of action is a lawsuit
in federal court by victim plaintiffs citing the "general welfare" clause in
the U.S. Constitution and asking the federal court to take over the state
criminal justice system? There would be no lack of victim plaintiffs. It
could be an interim solution, as has been done with Felix and the Hawai'i
State Hospital.

Obviously, state and local authorities and politicians are not up to the
task.

Frank D. Slocum

Wai'anae