A bill that would have authorized the head of the state Department of Public Safety to release some convicted felons to ease overcrowding in state-run jails appears to be dead for the session.
Last year state lawmakers authorized the director of the state Department of Public Safety to release inmates accused of or sentenced for some misdemeanor offenses as a way to ease jail overcrowding, but the department still hasn’t launched that initiative.
Nolan Espinda, director of the state Department of Public Safety, said prison officials plan to begin releasing inmates under that program next month but that it appears fewer than 100 prisoners will qualify.
This year lawmakers had been considering expanding that initiative by opening it up to inmates accused or convicted of misdemeanors or Class C felonies, which are punishable by up to five years in prison.
Under the new plan, prisoners would have had to be classified as minimum security or community custody status to qualify for release on furlough, to home detention, into community programs or via electronic monitoring. The new proposal would have excluded inmates charged with or convicted of what is defined as a “serious crime” under the Hawaii penal code, including higher-level felonies.
That proposed new language in House Bill 1246 HD 1 prompted sharp opposition from
Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro. His office submitted written testimony warning that “this proposal to lower the prison population by releasing defendants with minimal supervision seems directly contrary to the goal of public safety.”
The bill now appears to be dead for this year after missing an internal deadline last week, but lawmakers will be able to consider the proposal again next year.
Deputy Prosecutor Mark Tom said the problem with the bill was it would have allowed for release of some Class C felons who have committed crimes such as habitual property offenses, third-degree sexual assault, second-degree burglary, aggravated harassment by stalking, and first-degree terroristic threatening.
“It’s a huge concern,” Tom said. The Prosecutor’s Office was already concerned about releasing misdemeanor offenders because some of those prisoners are repeat offenders, including “some that we think are dangerous,” he said.
Overcrowding in Hawaii jails is a long-standing problem, and the ACLU of Hawaii Foundation has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Hawaii’s correctional facilities.
The ACLU filed its formal complaint with the Justice Department after a yearlong investigation of prison and jail conditions that concluded conditions were so bad that they amounted to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment for the inmates.
