Pacific Century Fellows— Public Safety

Here's a sign all "visitors" and visitors encounter when they enter Halawa Correctional Facility:
You are here because you need help.
We are here to help you.
We cannot help you if you do not cooperate.
If you do not cooperate, we will make you cooperate.

Going into the prison as a one day visitor I was under the impression the emphasis would be more on 'making' inmates 'cooperate' than actually helping them. I expected a very severe place with hardened criminals, angry guards, and cynical administrators. Let's be clear that the place is a medium-security prison and it certainly is not a hotel, but my overall impression from the three hours I spent there is that the place is a lot more hopeful than I ever imagined it could be.

We started the morning with a presentation by Clayton Frank, head of the Department of Public Safety. Mr. Frank explained the department is a part of the governor's cabinet, has a budget of $220 million, and 2,500 employees, but essentially it is unseen by the public unless absolutely necessary. As a result of being "under the totem pole," this department consistently sees its budget cut from one year to the next, but the demand for its services continue to go up, especially during an economic downturn. The prison is currently overcrowded because individuals continue to make poor choices despite being given many opportunities in the criminal justice system to avoid ever getting sent to Halawa. The current facilities are old and obsolete, and the political battles over where to locate the next big prison (not to mention how to pay for it) have caused Hawai'i to send almost 2,000 of its prisoners to a facility in Arizona. The situation is certainly not ideal, as seen in this recent article from the Honolulu Advertiser about a prisoner from Hawai'i getting killed there. One clear detriment is that the gang activity is quite rampant in the mainland prisons, much more so than at Halawa.

Mr. Frank also emphasized that we, as in the entire community, have a stake in the adequacy of the public safety system because 98% of offenders will eventually return to the community. They are not all simply locked up for good, so it behooves us to make sure that there are enough services for these individuals to make sure that they can contribute to society, or at least avoid committing more crime, when they get out. (Halawa currently has a 50% recidivism rate— their goal is 25%.) During the economic downturn the prison population has remained fairly constant but there are more homeless appearing due to the economic downturn and more violent crime. Much of the violent crime, according to Mr. Frank, is a result of drugs, which he says accounts for 75% of the offenses committed by the incarcerated at Halawa. In his determination, crystal meth is the single most damaging factor to families and individuals in Hawai'i. The health costs associated with this drug due to respiratory, heart, and dental damage have steadily gone up while their funding has gone down (that was a consistent theme in the presentation). It currently costs $139 per day to house an inmate at Halawa, approximately $50,000 per year, so it is also in our fiscal interests to prevent these crimes from occurring.

Despite the challenges the prison administrators face every day and every budgeting session, what they presented to us was a very strong product in my opinion. That impression may have been due to my low expectations going in, but the overwhelming sentiment I have after the experience is one of optimism. As Gary Kaplan, Program Control Administrator, showed us around the prison, he constantly emphasized the desire to prevent crimes. The juvenile system, courts, and family counseling structure are critical in helping to achieve those outcomes, but it is very difficult, again due to the prevalence of drugs which undermine the family unit and have terrible impacts on individuals. So once they arrive at Halawa after having traveled through the entire system, it is crucial, according to Mr. kaplan, that they strive to improve themselves. The prison has a very extensive RaD (Reception and Diagnostic) program where they evaluate all elements of an inmate— crime committed, psychological state, addiction, level of education, any specialized skills they might have— in order to craft the most effective plan for their respective rehabilitation. The medical, educational, library, industrial facilities were reportedly well used by the inmates and the people working there appeared to love their jobs and I got the sense they really believe that they are actually helping the inmates improve themselves. To illustrate this point (maybe its cognitive dissonance), the landscaping around "Main Street", the main road that connects all the prison facilities, is beautiful and appears to be professionally maintained. Mr. Kaplan told us that a sex offender had taken the lead on that many years ago and had subsequently trained other inmates on how best to maintain the grounds before he was released. He later returned for committing a non-sex-based crime. (Mr. Kaplan also assured us that most sex offenders did not commit similar crimes upon being released from Halawa.)