Decrease – not expand – state prisons

We understand the need to renovate existing facilities in Hawai`i. Our jails and prisons are in sad disrepair due to lack of maintenance and overcrowding. We believe that there needs to be much broader and more frank community discussions on how to address the pressing need for renovation of deteriorating facilities, and for reforming Hawai`i’s draconian sentencing regimes that has resulted in massive overcrowding.

The state could use this crisis/opportunity to help incarcerated individuals develop marketable job skills by employing those incarcerated individuals who have an aptitude, training, or experience in construction work for the necessary renovations. Research into what works best to help formerly incarcerated people desist from crime and substance abuse shows meaningful work and relationships with law abiding others are vital. Employment will help those who will be exiting incarceration develop marketable job skills. Partnering incarcerated people with skilled union labor will increase the work force by training individuals who can be hired upon release, reduce the costs of construction and reduce the risk of reoffending as well.

Before any decision is made, PSD should share with the public:
- the number of individuals who are currently incarcerated,
- their classifications,
- their locations (where they are serving their sentences),
- their program participation/completion and their TPD (tentative parole date).

This will help the community understand how many people need to be incarcerated and how many could be treated more successfully in community-based programs. If we put the resources into increasing community alternatives, we can decrease the need for prison beds.

Our goal should be to decrease prison beds, not keep them at current levels or create any new beds.

It has been reported that PSD is planning for a baseline 6,000 beds. Why would the department make the baseline 6,000 when Hawai`i’s imprisonment numbers rose dramatically as Hawa`i was caught up in the mass incarceration boom of the last few decades? At the height of mass incarceration we had approximately 6000 incarcerated individuals, maintaining that number of beds appears to be going backwards from the reforms that were promised.

Hawai’i must embrace community corrections and deal with law-breaking in more positive ways. We have a vastly lower rate of crime than most cities the size of Honolulu in the United States.42 We need to focus on how to the decrease incarceration and prisons for our small island state. The expenditure of millions or even a billion dollars for prisons and jails is short-sighted and will harm the overall safety of our community in the long run. It is well known that prisons increase bad behavior,43 expanding prisons is an “old school” attempt to fix a problem that is social in nature not criminal. The average grade level of people in our prisons is the sixth grade. This alone points to an obvious deficit in our community.

Common sense must prevail. Taking someone’s liberty away is very serious. In essence, the state banishes that person from society for a period of time. This is the most serious and expensive sanction and should be reserved only for those who present a danger to society, not thieves and people who abuse substances. Instead of building more facilities, more beds, let’s do what make the most sense, has been proven cost effective, and achieves the outcomes that every community wants: a safe, healthy, and just environment in which to raise their families and enjoy their lives.

Prison harms people. Start with the nonviolent folks who commit certain crimes and use evidence based practices to develop effective strategies that would help folks get on track while avoiding prison. It has been proven that effective programs using evidence-and culturally-based practices work in Hawai`i nei. They don’t threaten public safety; in fact, most of these programs are very involved in their community. This is a win-win for individuals, families, and communities.

Partnering with any corporate prison entity to renovate and/or construct any facilities in Hawai`i is a bad idea and we respectfully urge the state to not to open Hawai`i’s door to the private prison industry.

Hawai‘i can do more to rehabilitate people. We know that prisons further increase criminal thinking. Hence, prison-building is not a good investment for Hawai`i. Invest in our people. Increase everyone’s social capital.

We can do this.