HIGHER RECIDIVISM RATE RAISES COSTS TO STATE, SOCIETY

THE ISSUE - Hawaii inmates who serve their terms on the mainland more often
return to criminal life than those who serve in state facilities.

ALTHOUGH sending Hawaii inmates to mainland prisons is cheaper in the short
term, the practice has long-term costs in that it appears to do little to
help prisoners escape the cycle of crime. Startling information shows that
those who served time on the mainland have a significantly higher rate of
recidivism. With the new administration's emphasis on rehabilitation, state
legislators and Governor Lingle should consider bringing island prisoners
back home.

James Propotnick, the interim public safety director, told lawmakers this
week that 90 percent of those who were incarcerated on the mainland return
to commit crimes again. This compares to a 47 to 57 percent recidivism rate
for inmates housed in Hawaii.

Crowded conditions at Hawaii prisons and a lack of new facilities have
forced the state to dispatch about 1,300 inmates elsewhere at a cost of
about $25 million a year, or about $54 a day, as compared to a daily $80 to
$90 to keep an inmate in state facilities. However, these figures don't
factor in the cost of recidivism, which experts say results from poor
efforts at rehabilitation and lack of family support and drug treatment
programs.

State officials have been reluctant to build more prisons during lean
budgetary years and because of objections from communities that did not want
such facilities in their areas. Late last year, former Governor Cayetano was
on the brink of reaching an agreement with a private company to build and
possibly operate a prison at Halawa. The $116 million facility would have
housed as many as 1,100 inmates. The deal fell through when unforeseen
conditions raised the cost of construction and the incoming administration
complained that the facility would not meet its goals.

Because the majority of inmates are drug offenders, Lingle favors treatment
outside of prison walls for certain individuals and a new state law requires
that first-time, nonviolent drug offenders get treatment rather than
incarceration. The intent is to give lawbreakers a better chance at
rehabilitation and to save prison space for those who actually need to be
separated from the community.

With the state's fiscal crisis, finding money for a new facility would be
burdensome. Nevertheless, state lawmakers and the governor should consider
the long-term expense of continuing to send inmates out of state and the
cost to society if they resume their lawless ways.