Articles & News

October 10, 2008

Second chances in Hawaii: Easing inmates into society

By Rosemarie Bernardo

A job, a secure home and a safe social network is key to survival for just about anyone, but they're especially necessary for former prison inmates.

Getting a job is a major factor in an ex-convict's successful return to society, but advocates say the state isn't doing enough to create and support so-called reentry programs.

Kat Brady, coordinator of Community Alliance on Prisons, criticized the state for its lack of a comprehensive approach to reentry.

"In order for reentry to work, there has to be a whole cadre of programs within the system to help people develop marketable job skills so they can come out to find work to support their families," Brady said.

Business owners like Kevin Nip, formerly with MarbleHaus Hawaii and a co-owner of Selective Stone LLC, has hired more than a dozen former inmates over the last six years.

"We as a community need to be more accepting of these individuals as being human beings just like we are. They should be given that chance to prove themselves or given that chance to at least take an opportunity to see where they can go with that," Nip said.
 

Fifteen and homeless, James Kealoha Faria was in and out of juvenile hall as he abused and dealt crystal methamphetamine.

"I think I've been to all the police stations except Waianae," Faria recalled.

 

He continued to get into trouble and moved to Maui from Oahu to start anew. But his ice addiction worsened. When he was in his mid-20s, he was sent to prison for burglary and theft-related felony offenses.

After almost five years in prison at the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Oklahoma, Faria transferred to the Maui Community Correctional Center to complete his sentence.

He was eligible to participate in classes offered by the Being Empowered and Safe Together reintegration program administered by the Maui Economic Opportunity Inc. But Faria resisted.

Program staff urged him to give the program a chance. "They really sat me down and they like help me," he said.

The BEST program offered support, something he never had. With their help, Faria, now 32, obtained a job with Elima Engineering as a construction worker. He now earns $27 an hour and rents a two-bedroom home in Upcountry Maui.

But as state officials work to implement more so-called re-entry programs like BEST across the islands, some advocates say the state's approach is underwhelming and that more needs to be done to rehabilitate offenders.

Rehab in demand
More re-entry programs are needed to rehabilitate inmates which will, in turn, lower incarceration costs for taxpayers, said state Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Senate's Public Safety Committee.

For nonviolent offenders, Espero recommends placing them in programs rather than prison, which would cut taxpayers' cost of incarcerating an inmate by half and address prison overcrowding.

Public safety officials contend they are taking a proactive approach by looking into alternatives to incarceration. Earlier this year, they partnered with a community-based organization to establish a pilot work furlough program at Waiawa Correctional Facility. But the lack of beds and program space remain constant challenges to establishing more reintegration sites.

"We're constantly looking at partnering with the private sector and nonprofit organizations to expand on reintegration program," said Tommy Johnson, deputy director of the state Corrections Division.

Officials also say multiple opportunities are given to offenders before they fail to comply and are ultimately incarcerated.

"I've not seen one nonviolent offender ever come to the system. They are usually given probation," said Clayton Frank, director of the Department of Public Safety.

If the offender chooses not to participate in a program, then the court has to make a decision what to do with these individuals, Frank said.

"They are given many chances by the court and there comes a point where the court says enough already."

The judiciary, juvenile-support programs, and families all are needed to help avoid problems. "If we can nip the bud in the earlier stages, we may not have problems like this later on dealing with offenders," he said.

The correctional system is at the tail end when all else fails in the system, Frank said. "If we can do a better job at the front end, hopefully these people don't come into our system."
 

Kat Brady, coordinator of Community Alliance on Prisons, said the state lacks a comprehensive approach to re-entry programs, instead relying on a piecemeal approach.

"One of the problems of re-entry, they think it's the back end. In order for re-entry to work, there has to be a whole cadre of programs within the system to help people develop marketable job skills so they can come out to find work to support their families," Brady said.

States across the nation are realizing that a lot of money is being spent on incarceration at the risk of health care, education and other social services, she added.

A high percentage of inmates in prison need little or no supervision, Brady said. According to a recent study of prisoners, 54 percent of men and 66 percent of women are in minimum or community custody.

Support for inmates
Programs like BEST and T.J. Mahoney & Associates are examples of programs that offer an array of services to help inmates successfully transition back into the community.

Under a federal grant, the BEST program was established in January 2003 to assist inmates when they leave prison. Those eligible to enter the program are offenders incarcerated for a serious and violent offense, a class A or class B felony, between the ages 18 and 35 and are sentenced to prison for at least a year. The majority of clients are men.

Services offered include mentoring, case management, pre-employment training, housing assistance, family reunification and a cultural renewal program. The average length of stay for clients is 25 months, but some have been in the program for five years, said director Ken Hunt.

Support makes a difference for participants. "Sometimes, they need just a helping hand to guide them," Hunt said.

If it wasn't for the BEST program, Faria said he would be back in jail.

"Nobody thought I would make it. Everybody trippin' out right now. I was the worst one," he said.

Support from staff was also the key factor to Dorothea Smith's reintegration into society after she was convicted for welfare fraud and selling drugs in October 2004.

Distraught from the death of her boyfriend, Smith stopped working as a registered nurse. "I wasn't functional anymore," she said. Smith started to sell cocaine on the North Shore to support her alcoholism.

After two years at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua that included an intensive stint in treatment, Smith entered Ka Hale Hoala Hou No Na Wahine, which means the Home of Reawakening for Women, a reintegration program in Mapunapuna operated by T.J. Mahoney.

Since 1992, the reintegration program has been contracted by the Department of Public Safety to help female offenders return to society. It is the only program in the state that primarily caters to women.

Lorraine Robinson, executive director of T.J.'s, said most offenders don't have a social support network, she said.

The program has a success rate of between 68 percent and 70 percent of offenders who have completed the program and stayed out of prison for three years compared to 35 percent of other offenders.

Through the program, Smith got a job as a housekeeper with Team Clean Inc. earning about $16 an hour. With the help from staff at T.J. Mahoney's, Smith said, she regained her self-worth.

"It gave me back the old me," Smith said.

Earlier this year, Smith was granted parole.