Question: My house was broken into and it was a terrible violation. I don’t even want to live here anymore. I don’t know whether they ever will even catch the person who did it, but if they do, would that person be considered a nonviolent offender eligible for early release just because no one was home and no one was hurt when my house got robbed?
Answer: The crime you describe sounds like second-degree burglary, which is a Class C felony under Hawaii law, so no, the offender would not be a likely candidate under the proposal by the Ige administration. That plan focuses on “the release of pretrial and sentenced misdemeanants to prevent overcrowding,” per House Bill 2391, House Draft 2. You can read the full measure at 808ne.ws/21EaKB9. In general, it would allow the release of inmates convicted of misdemeanors who have not been convicted of violent crimes or had bail set higher than $5,000.
Kokua Line has received similar questions from other property crime victims wondering whether perpetrators could be released under this plan. If the criminals are already behind bars, the answer is no, because this bill would apply only to defendants incarcerated after it takes effect — assuming it passes.
Moreover, many property crimes are felonies, and those more serious offenses are not the target of this measure. You can find details in the Hawaii Revised Statutes, Chapter 708, “Offenses Against Property Rights,” at 808ne.ws/1T4yoGD.
Given the interest, we asked the Department of Public Safety for more information. Here’s the response from Toni Schwartz, public information officer:
“If the bill passes, the people who could be considered for this action would be pretrial defendants who are awaiting trial for nonviolent offenses and who could not post the bail imposed by the courts. It also includes sentenced misdemeanants and petty misdemeanants with nonviolent charges. A misdemeanor is a low-level crime punishable by up to one year in jail. A petty misdemeanor is the least serious type of criminal offense, punishable by up to 30 days in jail. These are the lowest levels of crime that are punishable with incarceration. Nonviolent crimes can include things like not paying tickets, low-level theft and drug-related charges.
“The charges pending against the pretrial or sentenced misdemeanant would not be dismissed or terminated. They would still have to follow through with court appearances just like someone who posted bail would have to do.”
Schwartz continued: “This bill is not bringing up a new idea. Under the 15-year OCCC/WCCC (Oahu and Women’s community correctional centers) consent decree (1985-2000), there existed prior legislation authorizing the director of the Department of Public Safety to release qualified pretrial inmates, including accused felons, in order to keep jail populations at established capacities. The department was under threat of per-day/per-inmate fines by the court to the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars if we didn’t comply. As the director previously stated in verbal testimony at hearings, we had not heard of an uptick in violent crimes during that time period.
“This bill would allow us to control what actions are taken and proactively avoid lawsuits related to the overcrowding. … All of our jails are overcrowded to the point of triple and quadruple bunking,” Schwartz said. “A lot of the people who take up those bed spaces are pretrial defendants with minor charges who couldn’t post bail. We identified about 350 individuals who theoretically would be screened to determine if they meet the set criteria specified in the bill, leaving a much lesser amount to be actually eligible for potential release.”
Schwartz added, “What people don’t realize is we are at a critical point with our current overcrowding situation. If we don’t do something soon, the lawsuits will come and the feds could come back in, impose another consent decree and force us to release people under their terms and conditions. At least with this bill we have a way of working with our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners to figure out a proactive way to address jail overcrowding.”
Mahalo
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