Justice Reinvestment

... Criminals were lined up when the doors opened, eager for a chance to do it all over again ....

... Approximately 70 people attended the “Breaking Cycles Symposium Update: Re-envisioning a Health, Housing, and Corrections Continuum” at the state Capitol auditorium ....

... The purpose was to bring awareness to initiatives to modernize our public safety facilities, disrupt pathways to prison, and reduce recidivism ....

... Thaxton pled down 2009 pimping and child rape charges to felony assault then came before Judge Steven Alm on HOPE violations 13 times between 2010 and 2015 ....

... urging Governor Ige to veto HB 1567 HD1 SD1 CD1, which eliminates the use of monetary bail and requires defendants to be released on their own recognizance for certain nonviolent offenses ....

... Nearly 30 years ago, in our 1992 report, we had raised concerns about the quality of the data used by the department (and nothing has changed since) ....

...$23.2 million in back pay for just one group of convicts.... 

... The legislation would restrict asset forfeiture to felony cases and would require a criminal conviction before prosecutors could proceed with the process in most cases ....

... Kawailoa Pursues Bill to Engage in Economic Enterprise ....

...First Circuit Judge Steven Alm’s probation reform pilot program, Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE), which launched in 2004 to reduce recidivism and probation violations....

...At 11am today, the Hawaii Supreme Court is hearing a motion from the State Public Defender’s office using COVD as an excuse to order another mass release of criminals from Hawaii’s prisons and jails....

...Schatz doesn't want poor innocent criminals to die in prison....

...ACLU wants lots of unconvicted criminals back out on the streets....

...Escape in the Second Degree is a class C felony and carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $10,000.00 fine....

Attorney General Doug Chin said, “The jury verdict exonerates Warden Wagatsuma...."

They found no real difference in outcomes....

This study is comprised of 2,464 offenders from the Fiscal Year 2012 cohort....

To illustrate how the carrot-and-stick approach can work, Satel describes the success of Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement program....

Swift-certain-fair (SCF) sanctioning improves on conventional practice....

Hawaii, Idaho and Kentucky each imprisoned 5 percent fewer sentenced prisoners at yearend 2013 than at yearend 2012....

Every few years, an intervention bursts upon the scene, is heralded as having special crime-reducing powers, and is enthusiastically implemented....

Statistics show that without income from a paying job an ex-offender often will return to criminal activity....

State officials in South Dakota and Hawaii have found a creative way to address alcohol use, drug use, and crime....

The lead researcher in NIJ's HOPE evaluation discusses efforts to duplicate the swift-and-certain sanctions model on the mainland....

...bipartisan support for relieving prison overcrowding by reducing sentences for non-violent crimes and putting the savings into community programs....

The two largest correctional facilities, in Honolulu and Waipahu, both hold more seriously mentally ill individuals than are held at Hawaii State Hospital....

These types of offenses include truancy, running away from home, incorrigibility, curfew violations, and alcohol and tobacco consumption....

In 2004, Judge Steven Alm had a Howard Beale moment in his Honolulu courtroom....

After the first year of implementation, the state reduced its corrections population 4 percent, averted $2.5 million in costs, and allocated $3.4 million into its reinvestment strategies....

...the suspect's mother describes the revolving door of mental health facilities and half-way houses through which her son has passed in the last year....

...Abercrombie indicated that his administration issued a Request for Information (RFI) for the rehabilitation of correctional facilities statewide....

...the policy recommendations are projected to accelerate current trends, reducing the HYCF average daily population by 60 percent by 2019....

Ruth has been with the Department of Public Safety since June 1995....

On February 17, 2013, Plaintiff Lealao was in Module 2B Quad 3 at HCF when he was viciously attacked by numerous violent and/or dangerous inmates from another Quad....

Assaults on workers at the Hawaii State Hospital are all too common, and taxpayers are picking up the tab for the cost of treatment and workers compensation....

...four states - California, Idaho, Vermont, and Hawai'i - collectively ship 10,500  prisoners to for-profit prisons outside their home states.  West Virginia is developing a plan to do the same....

...designing, building, maintaining and financing for the new or expanded facilities described below....

Fewer than half the U.S. population lives in communities where the most basic methods of diverting people with severe mental illness from the criminal justice system are being used....

Approximately half of mass shootings are caused by individuals with untreated severe mental illness....

A new bipartisan, inter-branch working group will analyze the state’s juvenile justice system and develop data-driven policy recommendations for the 2014 Legislature....

Attorney General Eric Holder presented the award to Ferguson-Brey during the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week awards ceremony....

“These Top 25 innovations in government offer real, tangible ways to protect our most disadvantaged citizens, educate the next-generation workforce, and utilize data analytics to enhance government performance.”

The interim appointment fills a new seat in compliance with Act 139 of the 2012 Legislature, which increased Hawaii Paroling Authority members from three to five.

The nine-member Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force today presented its findings and recommendations to the Hawaiʻi Legislature....