Letters to editor: Maui News
By: NETRA HALPERIN
February 7th, 2010

The facts regarding the letter (Jan. 13) “Programs could be expanded at new jail”:

• The state recently halved Maui Economic Opportunity’s BEST reintegration program and is threatening to close it. Would building a new prison make it be expanded?
• Incarceration rates in Hawaii and the U.S. have soared since private prisons have lobbied for mandatory sentencing laws in order to fill beds – for their own profits.
• Regarding the “violent, multiple offense murders, rapists, child molesters and meth dealers,” the state recently, unwisely, closed an effective sex offender treatment program at Kulani Prison on the Big Island.
• Regarding other public safety risks, Hawaii has relatively little violent crime. A recent audit of 2,400 out of 6,000 prisoner files found gross over-incarceration.
• Maui Community Correctional Center costs us $100/day per pretrial arrestee (who couldn’t afford to post bail) versus $4/day for probation.

After spending two days working with inmates in MCCC, I was more struck by the atmosphere of despair and wasted lives than the physical condition of the jail. Ninety-seven percent of these detainees will return to the community; they are someone’s friend, parent, sibling or spouse.

Borrowing $235 million to build a fancy new prison will saddle Hawaii with $19.4 million in yearly debt service in addition to $27.3 million in operating costs – over double the $21.9 million spent on Maui public schools.

It’s all about long-range budgeting priorities. I favor education to prevent crime, and drug abuse treatment to help eliminate it.

Netra Halperin

Kihei

| Category Drug Abuse Treatment and Crime Prevention, Will building a prison in Pu`unene make us safer?