Pubdate: Thu, 24 Jul 2008
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Page: A11
Copyright: 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Mark Schoofs
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/probation
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

SCARED STRAIGHT...BY PROBATION

Honolulu - Jobert Sumibcay, father of a toddler, was in jail only for 
the weekend, but it was bitter. "Father's Day, missing Father's Day," 
he lamented. The 21-year-old admitted car thief and methamphetamine 
addict, usually free on probation, added: "It's actually real good 
that I come to prison" because it "wakes you up: Why are you doing 
this? You could be out there instead of being in here."

That is the message an innovative Hawaiian probation program aims to 
send. Started about four years ago by a former U.S. attorney who is 
now a judge, the program has the potential to transform the nation's 
broken probation system, some crime experts believe.

Known as HOPE, for Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement, 
the strategy has sharply reduced probation violations among 
participating criminals.

Preliminary evidence from law enforcement suggests it can also reduce 
repeat crimes. The key: "flash incarceration" that sends offenders to 
jail for short but immediate sentences for violating virtually any 
probation condition.

Those who follow the rules are rewarded with looser supervision. The 
U.S. has the world's highest rate of incarceration, according to a 
study of 214 countries by King's College London. But even larger 
numbers are on probation: 4.2 million at the end of 2006, according 
to the Department of Justice, 1.8 million more than were locked up in 
all correctional facilities across the country.

As many as half of probationers go on to break the law again, 
exemplifying how poor the system is at rehabilitation. One reason: 
the criminal justice system has increasingly tilted toward "tough on 
crime" severity, such as "three strikes and you're out," giving short 
shrift to what has been known about changing human behavior since at 
least the Enlightenment. That's when philosopher Cesare Beccaria, 
whose ideas influenced Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, wrote in a 
seminal 1764 treatise, "Crimes are more effectually prevented by the 
certainty than the severity of punishment." Beccaria also postulated 
that the swifter the punishment, the likelier offenders would be to 
associate them with their crimes.

There are caveats.

Some prosecutors fear that a special, strictly monitored probation 
may tempt judges to place people in it who should actually be behind 
bars. (Probation is community supervision in lieu of prison; parole 
is for prisoners released early. Criminals deemed violent are usually 
ineligible for any probation, including HOPE.)

Two men selected for HOPE allegedly committed murder before they were 
formally enrolled in the program. Such cases, said Honolulu 
prosecuting attorney Peter Carlisle, could spark a political backlash.

"The million-dollar question," Mr. Carlisle added, is whether HOPE 
reduces the rate of new crimes committed by probationers. 
"Intuitively I would believe that it does," he said, "but you've got 
to show me." Final data on that question are expected by year end.

Others wonder whether the program, which requires efficient 
coordination among multiple agencies, can be replicated in larger 
bureaucracies. Prof. David Kennedy of New York's John Jay College of 
Criminal Justice counters, "This is not rocket science, this is 
training-a-puppy stuff." Nationally, more than half of men arrested 
test positive for drugs when they are apprehended, according to 
Justice Department research.

But one of HOPE's standout successes, reducing drug use, embroils it 
in a debate: whether jail, however brief, is appropriate for addicts 
who relapse into drug use. Some drug-policy reformers argue that 
incarceration perpetuates the paradigm of addiction as a crime rather 
than a disease.

HOPE proponents counter that flash incarceration spares offenders 
longer prison terms by helping them get off drugs, obey probation and 
refrain from committing new crimes. Prof. Kennedy said the research 
conducted so far on HOPE shows that even tough, drug-using felons 
"can be very effectively reached by a very common-sense structure of 
clear expectations, clear, predictable consequences, and real help 
and support."

While in jail, Kenneth Costa, a 44-year-old convicted drug felon who 
said he started using methamphetamine more than 25 years ago, heard 
about HOPE from fellow inmates, some of whom described it as a "last 
chance" and told him it "keeps you on track. My fiancee was 
pregnant.I was sick and tired of being sick and tired." He said the 
program provides the "structure" to help his treatment succeed.

He said he has been drug-free for 14 months. HOPE is the brainchild 
of Judge Steven Alm, an energetic 55-year-old former U.S. attorney 
for Hawaii who drives a black Corvette. He was assigned to criminal 
court in 2004 and immediately faced a slew of motions to revoke 
probation. In every case, he recalls, the defendant had "pages of 
violations stretching back months or even years" yet had suffered 
virtually no consequences for any of them.

That is the reality across the U.S., Prof. Kennedy said. Probation, 
administered by a patchwork of state and local systems and often 
starved for resources, "basically teaches people to ignore" probation 
officers' warnings, he said, until violations accumulate to a tipping point.

Then, offenders face dire -- and expensive -- consequences: in 
Hawaii, as much as 20 years in prison.

To Judge Alm, this system seemed as absurd as parents failing to 
respond to a child's persistent misbehavior and then suddenly kicking 
him or her out of the house.

His idea: Instead of one severe sanction after many violations, mete 
out relatively minor but "swift and certain" sanctions for every 
violation. The judge holds a "warning hearing" to explain the HOPE rules.

Under regular probation, for example, offenders are usually 
drug-tested only when they meet with their probation officer, giving 
them time to wash out the drugs. In HOPE, probationers with a drug 
problem must call in every weekday morning to see if they are 
scheduled for a random drug test that day. Virtually every violation 
results in immediate arrest, a hearing within 72 hours and almost 
certain jail time, varying from a few days for a first violation to a 
few months for subsequent ones. Participants who accumulate several 
violations risk having probation revoked and being sent to prison for years.

"I thought it would be counterproductive," recalled probation officer 
Sheri Shimbakuku. "How will I help them if they're in jail?" But she 
says HOPE probationers seemed much more receptive to help: "Boy, it 
was just different seeing their reaction to being in jail."

Flash incarceration has been used around the U.S. by specialized 
courts established to adjudicate drug cases, with demonstrated success.

But the Hawaii program is one of the first to test the approach among 
a broader group of probationers. In a randomized, controlled trial of 
more than 500 probationers, researchers from Pepperdine University 
and the University of California at Los Angeles found HOPE 
probationers were less than half as likely as controls to miss 
probation-officer appointments or test dirty for drugs, even though 
the controls knew in advance when they would be tested and HOPE 
participants didn't. These preliminary findings are being announced 
Thursday, and full results are expected by year end. Hawaii's state 
legislature allocated $1.2 million last year for the program, almost 
two-thirds of which went toward drug treatment slots.

But not everyone in HOPE gets treatment. Not all users are addicts; 
some users can stop without treatment. Those who are truly addicted 
triage themselves into treatment by repeatedly testing dirty.

The program now has more than 1,200 participants, out of Oahu's total 
population, excluding domestic violence offenders, of about 7,650 
felony probationers.

Its emphasis on sanctions led some to dub it "yank and spank." But in 
court, Judge Alm seems less the law-and-order hard-liner than the 
basketball coach he once was, giving his probationers pep talks.

Because Mr. Sumibcay, the father of the toddler, has a job as an 
airport porter, Judge Alm said he could serve his six-day sentence 
over two weekends so he wouldn't miss work. Mr. Sumibcay said he was 
grateful for the choice. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake