Inefficiencies in Hawaii’s criminal justice system over the past five years have contributed to a serious prison overcrowding problem and played a part in the need to incarcerate hundreds of inmates on the mainland, according to a landmark study on the system and interviews with correctional experts.

By taking some basic steps to address the inefficiencies, Hawaii potentially could free up roughly 1,200 beds, substantially lessen the pressures to send prisoners thousands of miles away and save millions of dollars annually, according to the experts and the study by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a New York nonprofit that helps states improve their correctional systems.

Because Hawaii’s prison population far exceeds the design and operational capacity of its eight facilities statewide, the department doubles and triples inmates in some cells, has some sleep on floors and pays more than $40 million annually to house 1,700-plus prisoners at Arizona institutions.

Even if the state could free up 1,200 local beds, however, that wouldn’t necessarily mean that 1,200 inmates could be returned from the mainland because not all those beds would be able to accommodate sentenced felons — the population incarcerated in Arizona.

But increasing efficiency would lessen overcrowding, which would benefit the entire system, experts say.

The Justice Center analysts produced what many say is the first comprehensive, independent study of Hawaii’s system, identifying areas in which the state can make inexpensive changes to realize substantial savings. The analysts are developing a final report, which would include recommended changes and legislation, that will be presented to the Abercrombie administration, legislators and Judiciary officials next month. All three branches have supported the center’s efforts thus far.

The idea behind the project, dubbed the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, is to reinvest savings into the system, making it more effective and efficient without compromising public safety.

"The fixes aren’t huge," said Janet Davidson, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Chaminade University. "You’re not talking about a great overhaul by any stretch."

The analysts found that in some key ways, Hawaii was significantly out of sync with what is common mainland practice, sometimes resulting in incarcerations that were longer than what studies show is effective for protecting public safety.

Those who have long pushed for system reforms say getting data-heavy analysis from an independent, respected organization has been invaluable. They say the center’s findings underscore a need to more smartly spend limited state resources in dealing with 6,000 inmates.

"At a time when we can’t afford it, we’ve really been throwing our money away in ways that don’t make sense," said Marilyn Brown, a University of Hawaii-Hilo associate professor of sociology.

The center’s analysis covered a period in which crimes, arrests and felons receiving prison sentences dropped — conditions that normally lead to a corresponding decline in the prison population. But Hawaii’s population remained stable over that period, largely because of the system inefficiencies, the analysts found.

Among their key findings:

» Compared with places on the mainland, people arrested for felonies on Oahu spent much longer periods in jail before being released on bail or so-called nonfinancial terms or before going to trial.Nonfinancial terms include such things as enrolling in a residential treatment program or reporting regularly to authorities. The local arrestees were held as much as five times longer than the average in 39 U.S. counties. In one example cited by the analysts, Honolulu arrestees who were released on nonfinancial terms took an average of 71 days to get out, compared with four days in Maricopa, Ariz., home of the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-described "toughest sheriff in America." Streamlining just the pretrial process has the potential to free up more than 650 beds.

» Nearly two-thirds of parole denials over the past five fiscal years were due to programming delays within the prisons. Inmates who had completed their minimum terms were denied release because they hadn’t finished programs such as substance abuse treatment, according to their analysis. Some programs had long wait lists. Many of those inmates were considered low risk for re-offending and not likely to benefit from the services.

» Parolees who committed technical, noncriminal violations, such as failing a urine test, were sent back to prison for significantly longer periods than in many other jurisdictions. Increasingly, those Hawaii parolees were held until their maximum sentences were up, adding years to their time behind bars. Yet in a growing number of other states, including some considered tough on crime, parolees who commit technical violations are sent back to prison for no more than one to three months. Such caps for low-risk inmates are considered more effective, according to Robert Coombs, the center’s senior policy analyst, who is working on the Hawaii project.

The center has helped more than a dozen states evaluate their prison systems, and some have realized substantial savings as a result. Texas, for instance, closed a prison this year for the first time in its history.

Unlike some of the other states, though, Hawaii doesn’t have to adopt controversial policies, such as decriminalizing offenses, or spend prohibitively large sums of money to address the system inefficiencies, Coombs said.

"You are in a very, very good position to start realizing savings very quickly," he said.

Some in the law-enforcement community are concerned about the possibility of eroding public safety.

"I don’t agree with the idea of releasing inmates if it is based solely on the need to save money or because of the lack of prison space," city Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser. "They are incarcerated because they pose a threat to public safety. I cannot agree to anything that would jeopardize public safety. If offenders or arrestees were low-risk, they would not be incarcerated."

Budget cuts and lack of personnel have played a role in the inefficiencies hurting the system.

Unfilled positions at courts and the public defender’s office have contributed to the bottlenecks in the pretrial process, and a shortage of community-based services that some arrestees need as a condition of release has exacerbated the problem, according to Jodie Maesaka-Hirata, director of the Department of Public Safety, which runs the prison system.

Budget cuts also have contributed to the bottleneck preventing some inmates from completing substance abuse or other prison treatment programs, Maesaka-Hirata said. When Kulani Correctional Facility on Hawaii island closed in 2009 for budget reasons, its sex-offender treatment program also shut down.

A lack of funding, however, is not the only culprit.

DESPITE RESEARCH that shows incarcerating low-risk inmates beyond minimum terms is not effective, an increasing number have been denied parole in Hawaii because of the program bottlenecks, according to the center’s Coombs.

"You are absolutely wasting prison beds," he said.

But Bert Matsuoka, chairman of the Hawaii Paroling Authority, said the majority of inmates denied parole for unfinished programming had been disciplined for misconduct and placed on "timeout," which prevented them from completing the programs. He said the board has paroled some inmates who hadn’t completed their programs if they had solid plans for employment and living arrangements upon release and if public safety wasn’t an issue.

"We don’t want to parole someone to the streets," Matsuoka said. "We don’t want to parole someone and set them up for failure."

Matsuoka said the board is open to considering better ways of handling paroles but believes the current system generally works well.

Asked about the notion of adopting caps for technical parole violations, Matsuoka said the parole board has concerns that such a policy would remove its decision-making flexibility, which is important given that each case is different. "Sometimes, there are hidden issues," he said.

Once the center makes its recommendations, some are likely to be incorporated into bills that will be introduced in the coming legislative session.

Maesaka-Hirata said she was pleased with how the initiative has progressed thus far. She said the outcomes will help with Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s goal of bringing back the mainland prisoners — that population has been reduced by several hundred since he took office — and ultimately will result in inmates being better prepared to return to the outside world.

"We want to release people to our community who are good neighbors," Maesaka-Hirata said.

Kat Brady, who heads the Community Alliance on Prisons, said Hawaii could be on the cusp of making major improvements.

"If we did these things, we could reduce the prison population dramatically," Brady said.