Feds can help with prison issue

As highlighted in Marilyn Brown’s commentary ("State should reduce reliance on incarceration," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Jan. 26), Hawaii has a great opportunity to apply for technical assistance under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative.

The deadline for Hawaii to submit a letter of interest is Tuesday.

A dozen other states have implemented Justice Reinvestment strategies, a data-driven approach to reduce corrections spending and reinvest savings in strategies that decrease crime and strengthen neighborhoods.

In Kansas, from 2007 to 2009, there was a 4 percent decrease in its state prison population.

The number of probationers and parolees revoked for violating the conditions of their supervision or convicted of committing new crimes dropped by more than 20 percent.

In Texas, from 2007 to 2008, the prison population increased by only 529 individuals; the projected increase for that period at the beginning of the 2007 legislative session was 5,141 individuals if the justice reinvestment strategies had not been implemented.

Why tax credits for gamblers?

OK, here we go again. House Bill 66 has been introduced to increase tax credits to cover any five-day gambling junket at all locations outside of Hawaii.

As Hawaii needs tax revenue to pay down millions of dollars of our budget deficit, why are our legislators passing laws that provide state tax credits for such unnecessary out-of-state gambling expenditures?

Let’s keep state gambling-free

The state of California has Indian casinos, lotteries, horse racing, etc., and collects revenue from them — but the state is in debt for billions of dollars.

Gambling produces more crime, more homeless people and addictive gamblers.

Let’s keep Hawaii as one of the only two states that do not have gambling.

Hawaii too lax on animal cruelty

In December, the Animal Legal Defense Fund released its "2010 State Animal Protection Laws Rankings." Hawaii, as it has every year since the ALDF began publishing the report in 2006, placed in the bottom tier of all 50 states. In fact, Hawaii consistently ranks so low, that in 2006 and as recently as 2009 it was infamously named as one of the "Five Best States to be an Animal Abuser" by the ALDF.

If this comes as a surprise to you, you need not look any further than a Hawaii jury’s recent acquittal of Sandra Maloney on animal cruelty charges for bludgeoning a peacock to death.

Apparently the jury needed only to determine that peacocks are pests or vermin like insects and therefore not protected under the law.

Never mind that the defenseless bird had its eye smashed out with a baseball bat, was dragged into some bushes and left to suffer for some 45 minutes.

Clearly Hawaii’s lawmakers need to do better.

Gov should lead by example

Gov. Neil Abercrombie is asking state workers to take a pay cut and has said he is going to cut Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

He spoke of a soda pop tax during his recent State of the State address.

What’s next: taxing every food item separately depending on its nutritional value?

While campaigning, Abercrombie made everything sound simple. He said he’d been in Washington many years and knows how to get federal monies — no worries about anything.

Mr. Governor, as the head of state, why not lead by example? Be the example for all politicians who are already financially set for life and be the ultimate public servant — either take a major pay cut or work for free yourself.

A state lottery wouldn’t be a bad idea either.