Putting youthful criminals in jail not best choice, lawmakers told

Government needs to find alternatives to locking up minors in correctional institutions when they become involved in illegal activities, a state lawmaker said Monday.

"We need to go a little further when we deal with issues of underage drinking, drug abuse and prostitution," Rep. John M. Mizuno said in an interview. "The way we address these problems needs to change."

Mizuno, chairman of the House Human Services Committee, and Senate counterpart Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland held a hearing at the state Capitol to discuss minors and criminal activity.

The discussions also covered crimes committed against youth, such as child abuse and using the Internet to lure minors for sex and other illegal purposes.

Mizuno said as these crimes continue to increase, solutions need to focus on getting the offenders into mentoring, awareness and rehabilitation programs instead of locking them up.

"Many people think that incarceration is the answer, but it’s not," he said. "We need to be more progressive in how we treat the youth."

David Hipp, administrator for the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, agreed.

"Incarceration doesn’t work," Hipp said at the meeting. "The kids we see are not a real violent population."

Seventy-six juvenile offenders are being held at the youth facility in Kailua.

"We support public safety and we don’t have a problem locking them up, but less than half of our kids are not a danger to society," Hipp said.

For rehabilitation purposes, he said, some of the minors should be in their communities and with their families.

Hipp said locking up minors in a youth facility costs $140,000 a year.

Also at the meeting were Hawaii Meth Project Executive Director Cindy Adams, representatives of the state Department of Human Services’ Child Welfare Services division, the Honolulu Police Department and the Hawaii Children’s Trust Fund, a partnership of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the state Department of Health committed to "preventing child abuse and neglect by strengthening families," its website says.

Mizuno said new approaches would not mean additional expense.

"It just means we start closing down programs that don’t work and start looking at the programs that are effective," he said.