RELAPSES HIGH FOR INMATES FROM ISLES

It Is One Reason Hawaii Should Build More Prisons Here, A State Official Says

Most of the Hawaii inmates serving time at mainland prisons have violated
parole and are now back in custody, says interim state Public Safety
Director James Propotnick.

As a result, there is a 90 percent recidivism rate for Hawaii parolees from
mainland prisons, compared with a rate of between 47 percent and 57 percent
for Hawaii parolees incarcerated locally.

"I found that figure to be startling because I was under the impression
that our inmates on the mainland were getting proper treatment, proper
programs to address whatever their shortcomings were," said freshman state
Rep. Glenn Wakai (D, Moanalua Valley).

"What's the public good of us sending them to the mainland to just house
them there so they can come back X number of years later and go and prey on
us again?" Wakai said.

Propotnick told Wakai and other House Finance Committee members at a budget
briefing yesterday that the nearly total recidivism rate for
mainland-housed inmates is a major reason why the state should bring them
home to a new 1,200-bed prison.

"We would be foolish not to," said Propotnick, who was named to the job
Thursday by Gov. Linda Lingle.

Propotnick told the committee that prison overcrowding is the department's
biggest problem.

Currently, the state spends about $25 million a year to house 1,347 inmates
out of state. An additional 3,722 inmates are housed in state, but that is
still above the state's capacity of 3,487, he said.

The total inmate population at the end of 2002 was 5,093.

"We worked diligently to manage our population in the past year, but we
have not been able to resolve the chronic overcrowding problem that has
plagued our department for the past two decades," Propotnick said.

State Rep. Colleen Meyer (R, Laie) said the implication of the 90 percent
recidivism rate of mainland parolees is that they are not being rehabilitated.

Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, agreed the
out-of-state inmates need a network of support to prevent them from
returning to prison.

She noted testimony from public-safety officials yesterday that 85 percent
of Hawaii inmates need substance-abuse treatment.

"They have not had the advantage of being close to their support system,"
Brady said.

"And to me, recovery is totally dependent on their support system so that
you have other people you can go to when you feel like you're at risk," she
said.

But Brady does not think a new prison is the best way to help inmates. She
favors community-based treatment centers for parolees with substance-abuse
problems.

That will save prison space for people who actually need to be separated
from society, Brady said.

A state law enacted last year that mandates first-time nonviolent drug
offenders get drug treatment first before prison time has helped a dozen
inmates secure early release as of mid-November.

However, stringent eligibility requirements have slowed the process.

The Cayetano administration was negotiating with a private developer late
last year to build a 1,200-bed prison next to the Halawa prison complex.
But a deal could not be reached before the Lingle administration took over,
because of an unexpected $7 million to $8 million needed to improve
Halawa's sewage system.

The state Department of Public Safety is seeking a $3.5 million increase in
2004 and a $3.1 million increase in 2005 to its $144.3 million general fund
biannual budget.