HOPE

The Judiciary brought to our attention a July/August 2009 article in the Washington Monthly praising Judge Steven Alm's project HOPE. It's worth a read here. HOPE has attracted national attention because it presents a real solution to mass incarceration. It works on a premise that every parent and pet owner understands; that behavior can be changed by punishment that is quick, if not immediate, and predictable.

An excerpt:

"For $3,000 per year, a HOPE-style mix of probation, drug testing, sanctions, and treatment only as needed, plus GPS monitoring, could deliver something like 80 percent of the crime-prevention benefits of a prison cell that costs ten times as much. With such a system in place, judges would have a real alternative to incarceration. And so would the governors who are thinking about letting prisoners out to save money. Today, two-thirds of those who leave prison will be back within three years; the exit from a prison is a revolving door. For felony probationers, the incarceration rate within three years is about 50 percent. If the "outpatient prison" could do for recidivism among parolees what HOPE did for new crimes by probationers, five years from now we could have many fewer people in prison than we do today, and half as much crime."

Lawmakers briefed on sex offender management

Rep. Blake Oshiro, the Dept. of Public Safety's Sex Offender Management Team and the U.S. Dept. of Justice's Bureaus of Justice Assistance yesterday briefed legislators and policymakers on effective sex offender management. Dr. Kurt Bumby of the Center for Effective Public Policy, an expert on sex offender management, discussed the facts and myths of sex offenders, as well as common trends and characteristics in rehabilitation and recidivism rates. He also reviewed specialized strategies for risk assessment, community supervision, and treatment.

One of the main points discussed during the training and presentation is the variation in sex offenders. The term "sex offender" suggests a homogeneous group of sexual predators, assuming similar re-offending patterns regardless of the nature of the offense, age of victim, motivations, criminal history, etc. These assumptions underlie many of our federal and state laws. However, research shows that all sex offenders can't be placed under the same umbrella. Because of the diverse nature of sex offenders, implementing public policy strategies that address a heterogeneous group of offenders would be more effective in maximizing resources and enhancing public safety. Understanding the etiological or explanatory theories of sex offending, and the facts, myths and trends of sex offenders is imperative to considering the implications of contemporary sex offender management strategies.

The Hawaii Department of Public Safety recently received a $249,426 federal grant to create the Hawaii Academy for Sex Offender Management (HATSOM), the nation's first site for ongoing sex offender management training. According to the Dept. of Public Safety, state professionals who work with sex offenders will receive training in the areas of investigation, prosecution, sentencing, assessment, treatment, reentry, supervision, registration and notification.

Dr. Bumby concluded his presentation with a "what works" summary of sex offender treatment and correction. (You can view the entire PowerPoint presentation here):

1.) Longer sentences, punishment-driven strategies unlikely to reduce recidivism
2.) Strategies pairing surveillance/monitoring with rehabilitative services have better outcomes
3.) Prison-based and community-based cognitive interventions (including sex offender treatment) reduce recidivism
- Costs-benefits analyses generally support investment
4.) Targeting higher risk offenders for more intensive interventions yields better outcomes
5.) Empirically-validated risk assessments provide best estimates of risk

Photo ( L-R): Dr. Kurt Bumby, Center for Effective Public Policy; Rep. Angus McKelvey; Tom Read, Dept. of Public Safety; and Leanne Gillespie, Dept. of Public Safety, Sex Offender Management Team.

Photo from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: As of July 17, 2008, Hawaii had a total of 2, 525 registered sex offenders.

YouTube my beef

With an influx of Internet assault videos being posted on video-sharing websites by young teens seeking fame across the web, New York lawmakers are considering legislation to make it a felony to videotape violent attacks for the sole purpose of distributing the footage on the Internet.

In Florida last month, eight teenagers were arrested and charged with allegedly attacking and beating another teen so they could make a video to post on Myspace and YouTube.

In Indiana, a brawl between two teenagers in a parking lot with young and adult bystanders was caught on a camera phone and then uploaded to Photobucket for the world to see.

Photos from another attack on a 17-year-old San Francisco sophomore by two other students in a locker room was found on Craigslist, a popular bulletin board site where people sell items, post job listings and search personal profiles.

The bill, which comes in response to the "animalistic attack" in Florida, was advanced by the New York Senate Majority Conference.

Hawaii has yet to see crimes being flaunted across the Internet, but maybe that's because no one has found them.

Should lawmakers create criminal laws for every aspect of a crime? Is it not enough to have assault as a crime? Is it necessary to increase sentencing for those criminals who record their heinous acts for the purpose of entertainment?

Internet crimes span from video assaults to email harassment to impersonation. Anyone with minimal technology knowledge can create a false email account, or steal a person photo and create a false profile on a networking site like Myspace.

This session, the House and Senate passed a bill (SB2456) that creates the crime of harassment by impersonation. The bill was in response to the continued harassment of a local attorney who daily receives crude emails from an anonymous person and whose colleagues and friends routinely receive defamatory emails claiming to be from the attorney. Lawmakers also passed out an indecent exposure bill (HB3040), which makes it a crime to expose oneself to minors on the Internet with a term of imprisonment to be determined by the court. Both bills are awaiting approval from the Governor.

Some may argue that law books already address crimes such as harassment, assault and indecent exposure and that creating laws for every criminal incident related to the Internet would just be bad policy, but with more youth, perverts and criminals cowering behind social-networking websites to vent anger, settle disputes and share with the world their battle bruises and personal packages, it may be sooner than later that we need a law book exclusively for Internet crimes.

Not all breast-feeding mothers exempt from crime

Senate conferees agreed to House amendments on HB2346, HD2, SD2 that would exempt breast-feeding mothers who recklessly introduce a controlled substance to their infants from criminal charges. The bill expands the crime of endangering the welfare of a minor to include situations in which an adult causes or permits a minor to inject, ingest, or inhale certain controlled substances that were not prescribed for the minor by a physician.

Rep. Tommy Waters said all breast-feeding mothers should not be excluded from the law because a mother who intentionally gives her child breast milk contaminated with a controlled substance should be charged with a crime.

Senators Chun Oakland and Brian Taniguchi voted yes and Senator Fred Hemmings voted no.

Root Cause of Crime in Hawaii

Photo: Judge Steven Alm, Judge James Gray and Eric Sterling

Are our current policies and prevention efforts on drug trafficking, drug abuse and prohibition working? The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Tommy Waters, will hold an informational briefing on the root cause of crime in Hawaii. ACLU Hawaii, Community Alliance on Prisons, and the Drug Policy forum of Hawaii are co-hosts.

When: Tuesday, July 17th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Where: State Capitol, Room 325

Speakers:

Judge Steven Alm - 1st Circuit Judge, Honolulu. Judge Alm is the chair of the Intermediate Sanctions Policy Council and Founder of H.O.P.E.

Judge James P. Gray - California Superior Court Judge. Judge Gray is the author of "Why our drug laws have failed and what we can do about it".

Eric E. Sterling - President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. Mr. Sterling is the liaison to the American Bar Association's Committee on Substance Abuse.

Did you know? Hawaii's incarceration rates are on the rise. We export more than half of our prisoners to private U.S. prisons. Hawaii's female prison population is at almost 2X the national average. Hawaii is the largest customer of Corrections Corporation of America at $50 million a year.