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Hawaii's overcrowded prisons and the question of whether building new facilities is the right response formed the central concern of this October 1994 Price of Paradise broadcast. Gene Kassebaum, professor of sociology at the University of Hawaii, noted that Hawaii then held around 2,800 inmates at above-capacity, with an average sentence length of forty months ranking third highest in the nation. He argued that shorter sentences for non-violent offenders and alternatives such as electronic monitoring and intensive community supervision could reduce overcrowding without releasing dangerous criminals. Jerry Riordan, president of the John Howard Society, agreed that building more prisons could not by itself solve the problem and called for earlier intervention programs aimed at preventing criminal behavior before it took hold. Both guests raised skepticism about privatization as a wholesale solution but acknowledged its role in transitional community services, including Riordan's own organization's residential program for women leaving prison. The question the episode posed remains live: whether Hawaii should commit the hundreds of millions of dollars required to expand prison capacity, or redirect resources to rehabilitative programs and community corrections that might lower recidivism at less cost.
Transcript
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