US - Hawaii finds success with tough-love approach to repeat offenders

[Thorns Have Roses]

Hawaii finds success with tough-love approach to repeat offenders
Graduated sanctions for those who fail drug tests seem to serve as a deterrent. It's a far cry from the fragmented, overwhelmed system it replaced.
Los Angeles Times
December 01, 2012|Steve Lopez

HONOLULU — The first thing you notice about 1st Circuit Judge Steven Alm is how excited he is about what he's doing. The buzz-cut, fast-talking judge was waiting for me in the lobby of the courthouse early on a recent morning and led me up to his third-floor chambers to explain Hawaii's promising approach to repeat offenders with drug and alcohol problems.

I'd heard about Alm's program, Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE), from two Southern California drug policy professors — Mark Kleiman at UCLA and Angela Hawken at Pepperdine — who urged me to go have a look at Alm's operation. The results, they said, have been promising enough to inspire more than a dozen copycat programs around the country, and the professors believe that broader implementation could save the country billions of dollars in incarceration costs and redeem lives too.

Alm, who served as Hawaii's U.S. attorney from 1994 to 2001, became a judge in 2001 and saw the same systemic problems he'd dealt with as a state prosecutor in the 1980s. Defendants were churned through a chaotic system that let some off the hook repeatedly, threw the book at others, reformed too few people and cost taxpayers way too much money. The vast majority of these burglars, robbers, sex offenders and other common criminals had drug and alcohol problems that figured into their habitual misdeeds.

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Full article here

 

[slimvictor]

Kinda strange - this so-called "HOPE" program doesn't really help give people hope by treating them like humans (who happen to use drugs).
It still treats them like criminals, and drug use as criminal behavior, which is a big mistake in my mind.

Also, despite the intention of the program, it is still pretty whimsical:

If they've used drugs, but confess to the probation officer before taking the test, they might get three days in jail. But if they fail to report that they've used drugs and then test positive, they're likely to get 15 days, followed by 30 for the next offense.

The main point of the program seems to be this:

the certainty of a disruptive three-day jail term and mandated testing, with graduated sanctions, seems to be a greater deterrent than the slim possibility of a long prison sentence.

Okay, I get that. But do we still have to put humans in jail for using (certain) drugs?
The alcoholics in the group get a real break, don't they?
"Your drug of choice, while dangerous and addictive, is just fine with us. You might be drinking a fifth of whiskey a night, but you won't get punished for that. But the other guy, who smoked weed last week after getting home from work, goes to jail."

 

[RedRum OG]

Until drug use is treated like schizophrenia or other mental Illnesses that drastically alter behavior, there will never really be justice

Maybe not exact same treatment as schizo etc, but at least in the same ballpark.

At least some people with some power are thinking in the right direction, that makes me happier

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

I see a new wave of synthetic cannabinoid and dodgy RC use in Hawaii's future.

And while I share everyone's the moral disgust with this approach, our criminal justice system is pretty broken and numbers like these will make the program appealing to other states so long as prohibition/criminalization remains our approach to the drug issue.

A 2009 study by professor Hawken for the U.S. Department of Justice found that HOPE probationers were 55% less likely to be arrested in a new crime than probationers not in the program. They were 72% less likely to use drugs, 61% less likely to skip appointments with their probation officer and 53% less likely to have their probation revoked, and they were sentenced to 48% fewer days of incarceration. And by offering probationers a chance to get clean on their own, precious drug treatment slots were saved for those who truly needed them.A 2009 study by professor Hawken for the U.S. Department of Justice found that HOPE probationers were 55% less likely to be arrested in a new crime than probationers not in the program. They were 72% less likely to use drugs, 61% less likely to skip appointments with their probation officer and 53% less likely to have their probation revoked, and they were sentenced to 48% fewer days of incarceration. And by offering probationers a chance to get clean on their own, precious drug treatment slots were saved for those who truly needed them.

 

[f33lg00d]

If you loved me you give me free will.