RECOVERING WHILE INCARCERATED

Inmates Get Honest In Jail Through New Maui Drug Court Program

WAILUKU -- Sentenced to prison for stealing vehicles and possessing drugs,
Erik Ekenberg is no stranger to incarceration.

But the 35-year-old Kula man says his current stay at the Maui Community
Correctional Center is unlike his prison terms of the past.

For nearly three months, Ekenberg has undergone 12 hours a day of drug
treatment while housed in Dorm 3, a 24-bunk jail dormitory designated only
for male offenders participating in the Maui Drug Court.

"It's helping me big time," Ekenberg said after a session on anger
management last month. "I can't say if I will make it or not, but I'm going
to give it my best shot."

State officials praise the unique Drug Court program, started little more
than a year ago for parole violators and inmates awaiting furlough.

The program begins with 90 days of treatment while in jail for the felony
offenders, who have agreed to undergo at least 15 months of drug treatment
instead of facing further incarceration. Once inmates complete the treatment
program in jail, they are released and continue for at least another year
with treatment and supervision through the Drug Court.

The Dorm 3 program is the only one of its kind in the state and one of only
four such programs in the nation, said Lillian Koller, Maui Drug Court
coordinator. She said the Maui program is modeled after one at the Los
Angeles County Jail that has won national recognition.

"It's a shift in the way you look at what incarceration is about," Koller
said. "It has to be a recovery center."

The annual budget for the Maui program is $100,000 to pay the salaries of
two counselors who work overlapping shifts in Dorm 3 to provide the 12 hours
of classes, group sessions and individual counseling from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
daily. Two jail guards are also assigned to the locked dormitory behind jail
fences.

"It's working," said Rick Fujihara, senior parole officer on Maui, who
supervises half of the approximately 350 felons on parole here. "It's
helping us to have more options for our parolees."

Since MCCC's Dorm 3 was renovated and opened for Drug Court participants on
Sept. 17, 2001, more than 20 parolees have been referred to the program,
with at least five still in the dormitory and 12 doing well out of jail,
Fujihara said.

"Some hard-core people who I felt wouldn't have a chance are actually
surprising me," Fujihara said. "We have been having some pretty positive
outcomes from this program."

Before Dorm 3 became an alternative, the cost and availability of drug
treatment were hurdles for those who violated terms of their paroles,
Fujihara said.

He said failing to report to the parole officer and using crystal
methamphetamine are the most common types of parole violations.

"Crystal meth is the major problem that we're experiencing," Fujihara said.
"Trying to tackle that monster is a day-to-day battle."

An estimated 85 percent of inmates statewide have histories of drug abuse,
said Albert Murashige, warden at MCCC, where 345 people ae incarcerated. He
calls the Dorm 3 program "a step in the right direction, that we address the
actual problem that's bringing people into our jails and prisons."

Dorm 3 participants must have no history of violence within the past five
years and must be approved by the Maui County prosecutor's office, which has
rejected felons considered to be drug dealers.

To participate, those facing revocation of their paroles agree to forgo a
hearing within 60 days before the Hawaii Paroling Authority.

Although parolees and inmates about to be furloughed are no longer under the
court's control, those participating in Drug Court become subject to the
jurisdiction of 2nd Circuit Court through an agreement with the state
Department of Public Safety, Hawaii Paroling Authority and the court, Koller
said.

Some participants are paroled felons who have been arrested on new felony
charges and are given the opportunity to have the new charges dismissed if
they successfully complete the Drug Court program.

For others, Maui Drug Court Judge Shackley Raffetto can recommend that the
parole board consider an earlier date of discharge from parole.

Because the judge can influence but not dictate some inmates' fate, "all
they are doing is simply getting an opportunity to get clean," Koller said.

The Drug Court jail dormitory operates under rules that are often stricter
than in the rest of the jail. Activities, including cleanup and study time,
take up much of the day. Dorm 3 inmates wear the same orange clothing but
aren't allowed to associate with or even talk to those incarcerated in other
parts of the jail.

The culture of intimidation that rules in most prisons is banned in Dorm 3,
said David Ramage, director of IMPACT-Maui, which runs Drug Court treatment
services, including the jail program.

"Any threats of violence and you're automatically gone," Ramage said.
"There's no tolerance."

In its first year of operation, 64 people went through the dorm, including
some Drug Court participants who were ordered into custody for short periods
for violating program rules. Thirty-one inmates spent full 90-day periods in
the dorm. Among them were participants required to complete residential drug
treatment.

"It's worked just as we had hoped," said Koller, who would like to see the
program expanded.

In mid-November, 11 inmates were housed in the dorm.

They included the first furlough inmate, a 37-year-old man serving a 10-year
prison term for "ice" possession. After serving time in Halawa prison on
Oahu and in an Oklahoma prison, he was returned to Maui in June to
participate in the Drug Court. He spent the first 90 days in Dorm 3.

"Dorm 3 is a controlled environment, it's like a self-governing
environment," said the man, who asked that his name not be used for the sake
of his family. "It's totally opposite of what we do in the regular
population. It's all about practicing honesty."

He still lives in the dorm but is released from the jail weekdays at 7:30
a.m. for five hours of program furlough.

Even though he is about 13 months short of the five-year minimum term he was
ordered to serve before being eligible for parole, Drug Court is giving him
a chance to be released earlier, the inmate says.

With no driver's license, he walks from the Wailuku jail to IMPACT-Maui
offices in the old Kress building on Main Street. He spends the morning in
classes and counseling sessions, learning what he can do to prevent
relapsing, before walking back to jail.

"I pretty much live in humility," he said. "I can be a team player more than
a person that always takes charge."

He said he thinks about how "ice" has destroyed lives on Maui.

"It's kind of painful cause I know I played a part in that," he said. "I
wish there's a remedy you can give them that would stop this from
happening."

When he was using the drug, "I never saw the destruction in my own mind," he
said.

While the man is at the IMPACT-Maui offices, where most Drug Court
participants go for drug tests and counseling, case worker Ronny Santiago is
leading a class on anger management in Dorm 3.

"On a daily basis, we're going to be faced with circumstances and situations
that test our emotions," Santiago tells the inmates, who sit in twos and
threes behind desks stretched between two rows of bunk beds. "The key is you
got to have a plan."

He suggests "10 deep breaths" as one possibility for an inmate who says, "I
can go from calm to rage in 10 seconds."

Jacob Carroll, 29, who has been in and out of prison for violating his
parole, said he has "found a way that I can recover" during his two months
in Dorm 3. "It's like heaven up here, actually," he said.

Ekenberg spent time in Halawa Prison on Oahu where "there's no
rehabilitation whatsoever. You're living in a warehouse." He did complete a
drug treatment program at the Waiawa correctional facility on Oahu before
being released on parole last year.

After returning to Maui, "I went right back into using," he said. "All my
charges stemmed from drugs."

Facing revocation of his parole as well as new charges for felonies,
including the theft of a tractor found on his property earlier this year, he
sought admission into Drug Court.

"This is my last chance," said Ekenberg, whose drug use began when he smoked
marijuana at age 5. "I've used for the last 30 years, so I need help. And
that's what I'm getting here. I got to change everything."

Once released from Dorm 3, Ekenberg and other felons will get help with the
transition, continuing with treatment, testing and monitoring for at least
another year through the Drug Court, Ramage said.

"'We stick with them," Koller said. "That's a key difference."

Ekenberg said one reason he wants to stop using drugs is for his daughter,
whom he has watched grow up through prison visits since 1996.

"I'm just tired of coming back to prison," he said. "I've got to stop it."