Millions of dollars in Hawaii tax revenue are being wasted on endless monitoring of people acquitted of minor crimes because of mental illness. A bill approved by the House last week should be enacted, limiting such monitoring to one year and saving expenditures for time spent by probation officers and mental health professionals.

City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro is opposing the move because "protecting the public’s safety is our highest priority. Supervision and treatment of defendants is critical to prevent future violence or criminal violations."

This concern belies the fact that statistically, mentally ill people are no more dangerous, nor are they more violent, than the general population. If anything, the change could make the state safer by giving probation officers, case managers, psychiatrists and psychologists time to focus on more troublesome cases, such as that of Clayborne Conley, who fatally shot his ex-girlfriend and her 13-year-old daughter and then himself last year. He was on conditional release from Hawaii State Hospital after being acquitted because of mental defect on charges stemming from burglary, a felony.

"The system has crashed," said Poka Laenui, head of Hale Naau Pono, a nonprofit provider of mental health services, after the Conley shooting. "It is, in fact, dysfunctional."

The reason may be that the system is overwhelmed by trying to monitor 150 misdemeanor and petty misdemeanor offenders who have been put on conditional release from the State Hospital — one-fourth of those in the conditional release program.

Ninety percent of those on conditional release in Hawaii emanating from such minor crimes remain there longer than they would have faced in prison, sometimes up to 20 times longer, according to Loretta J. Fuddy, interim director of the state Health Department. These offenders continue to be punished — not for their crime, but in effect, for their mental illness.

The maximum misdemeanor sentence is one year, but mental misdemeanor offenders spend an average of five years on conditional release. Those on such release must meet at least once a month with a probation officer and a mental health professional. Each of those cases costs taxpayers $400,000, together totaling millions of dollars annually.

"It’s costing Hawaii taxpayers a ton for something that’s really unnecessary," David Meyer, clinical professor at the University of Southern California’s Institute of Psychiatry, Law and Behavioral Sciences, told the Star-Advertiser’s Rob Perez.

Most other states don’t have never-ending conditional releases for misdemeanor offenders found to be mentally ill. A system similar to that of Hawaii’s was ruled unconstitutional in California in the late 1970s.

In good times, the system would be hard-pressed to diligently scrutinize the behavior of the hundreds on conditional leave from the State Hospital. State furlough days and Judiciary budget cuts have made the chore even more monumental. The most dangerous person with mental problems could be most likely to take advantage of those circumstances, making the legislation urgent.