Letters to editor: Maui News
By: NETRA HALPERIN
May 12th, 2010

Thanks to all who attended Kihei Community Association’s panel on the proposed Puunene prison. It was great to see so many Maui residents interested in learning about effective options to costly incarceration. I also appreciate the letters to the editor (March 23, 24, 28) adding manao to this discussion.

We don’t need to waste precious tax dollars on another prison. Because 85 percent of inmates have some level of drug/alcohol addiction, community-based treatment and family strengthening, along with sentencing reforms, would ameliorate the need for more prison beds. If you missed the panel, you can see it at www.archive.org/details/PanelOnProposedMauiPrison.

In response to a panelist’s assertion that “if the state doesn’t build a prison on Maui with $235 million in general obligation bonds, the money can’t be used for other purposes (education, health) and will be lost”: A bond is not a grant, it is a loan. Like all loans, it must be repaid – $19.4 million in yearly debt servicing in addition to $19.7 million in prison operating costs. As the Hawaii deputy director of public safety explained, prisons are not revenue-generating by nature.

Since September, the Department of Public Safety has spent another $2.5 million planning for this prison.

The only legitimate reasons to financially burden taxpayers are for the upliftment of the community – education, recreation, environmental preservation, essential infrastructure – or the anticipated generation of revenue. Prisons accomplish neither. Instead of incarceration, we must prioritize education.

Netra Halperin

Kihei

| Category Drug Abuse Treatment and Crime Prevention, Drug Awareness and Rehabilitation, Education, Justice Reinvestment/restorative justice