By Mandy Feder —
There is hope, I mean HOPE, Hawaii”s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement.
Within hours of posting last Friday”s Ink Out Loud column online, the following email came to me all the way from the Aloha state, bringing sunshine and solutions to an otherwise dismal subject.
“Hi Ms. Feder,
I am a judge in Honolulu. I just read your moving piece about your friend Chris.
“We certainly don”t have all the answers, but I think we have found a way to really help folks on probation to markedly reduce their drug use (and meth is our biggest illegal drug problem here) and get their lives back. It”s called HOPE Probation.
“I will send you an article I just wrote, which is the current cover story for Perspectives, the quarterly journal of the American Probation and Parole Association.
“HOPE is the best strategy for drug demand reduction I have ever seen. It also reduces crime and victimization, helps offenders and their families, and saves taxpayers millions of dollars. HOPE Probation is starting to be replicated around the country and California along with Washington State, are the first two places trying it for the parole population and are getting good results as well.
Best,
Steve Alm”
Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.”
I think that is just what Judge Alm saw, day-in and day-out, year after year, a very futile and expensive revolving door.
Alm launched a pilot program to reduce probation violations by drug offenders and others at high-risk of recidivism. The high-intensity supervision program is the first and only of its kind in the nation. According to www.hopeprobation.org, “Probationers in HOPE Probation receive swift, predictable, and immediate sanctions — typically resulting in several days in jail — for each detected violation, such as detected drug use or missed appointments with a probation officer.”
Alm said they were able to implement the program using the resources they already had. HOPE was born on Oct. 1, 2004.
The first action of the program against a probation violator is a formal warning from a judge in open court alerting the offender that any violation of probation will result in an immediate, brief jail stay.
As a parent I know that consequences for negative actions must be taken immediately or the message is diluted and sometimes completely lost. HOPE works the same way.
The HOPE program relies on accountability and personal responsibility.
Previously in Hawaii drug testing was administered providing as much as a month”s notice to the probationer. That changed with HOPE. Probationers are given a color code during the warning hearing. Every morning probationers are required to call a hotline to hear which color is selected for that day. If the color matches, that person must appear at the probation office before 2 p.m. for a drug test. Failure to appear for the drug test results in the issuance of a bench warrant that is served immediately. A probationer who fails the random drug test is immediately arrested and within 72 hours is brought before a judge. If the probationer is found to have violated the terms of probation, he or she is immediately sentenced to a short jail stay. Typically, the term is several days, sentences increase for successive violations. HOPE can assist in keeping probationers employed, because those who are employed can usually serve time on the weekends, so jobs are not jeopardized.
HOPE focuses on reducing drug use and missed appointments, which requires less treatment and court resources than drug courts.
The evaluation of the program found it highly successful at reducing drug use and crime, even among difficult populations such as methamphetamine abusers.
Creating good habits benefits the probationers. Credibility and accountability are valuable characteristics that are often absent from the childhoods of the now adult, drug users.
HOPE is an example of one system that seems to be working for a good percentage of a troubled population.
Never take away a person”s hope. It may be all they have.
Mandy Feder is the Managing Editor at Lake County Publishing. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 ext. 32. Follow on Twitter @mandyfeder1.
