Radical Left Discovers What Decent People Have Known for Centuries

First, I Wish You a belated Happy Independence Day. Thank God for his divine inspiration of our Founding Fathers and the freedoms we have enjoyed and hope to enjoy in the future.


It seems that a very few of the radical leftists running many of our state governments and many counties and cities within other states have discovered a cause and effect relationship between crime and punishment. Would that all politicians and bureaucrats discover this, the criminals surely know it.

In short, if criminals are held accountable for their crimes and punished accordingly, they will commit fewer crimes. Likewise, if criminals released on probation are forced to obey the rules of their probation, their recidivism is drastically reduced.

Here are some excerpts from a recent trial period of enforcing probation rules and the dramatic results. And this is from far left Hawaii!

HOPE (Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement), a new program that has been implemented in Honolulu, successfully links the criminal justice system to substance abuse treatment when needed. This program has the potential to command strong bipartisan support and substantially extend the reach of drug courts. HOPE holds the promise of significantly reducing the demand for illegal drugs, crime, and prison populations across the US. This innovative program can be branded and promoted as a high-visibility, high impact upgrading of the nation’s efforts to reduce illegal drug use and crime at the same time that it will reduce the nation’s prison population.

The drug abusers who use the most drugs and create the highest social costs frequently are also criminally active as drug dealers themselves and as property and violent offenders. They are also the most reliable customers of other drug dealers. It is their money that keeps the illegal drug markets in business, thereby damaging the neighborhoods where open dealing takes place. Their recidivism contributes greatly both to the crime rate and to the unconscionably large prison population.

Most of the drug using offenders are on probation, parole, or out on bail. Drug courts harness the leverage of the criminal justice system and the nation’s treatment system to reduce drug use and recidivism in this group, but drug courts are expensive and limited in scope. For example, most drug courts will not accept offenders with a history of violent crime. HOPE, however, extends the best features of drug courts to far larger populations at much lower costs.

Four years ago Project HOPE was started by Judge Steven S. Alm, a dedicated and creative judge in Honolulu, Hawaii. Alm’s vision was related to that of the founders of the drug court movement, but used a different approach, one with the promise of eventually encompassing every active drug user under criminal justice supervision in the community.
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The current system for handling drug use by criminal offenders under community supervision is akin to ignoring a child’s misbehavior for years and then, at some unpredictable moment, disowning or kicking the child out of the house. That strategy does not work for children and works even less well for criminal offenders released under supervision into the community. In contrast, the HOPE model includes quick, predicable, but relatively mild punishments for continued drug use. HOPE’s results, both in reduced drug use and less time behind bars, are striking.
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Compared to routine probation, HOPE has been shown in a careful, independent evaluation to reduce drug use by more than 90%1 and new crimes by more than 50% while shrinking the average number of days a probationer spends behind bars. In contrast, violation rates for non-HOPE probationers grew steadily worse over time, with 37% eventually having their probation revoked, compared with fewer than 5% for participants in HOPE. source.

In other words, uniformly enforcing existing probation rules works. Not enforcing them does not. If everyone in the criminal system knows that all violations will be punished, repeat drug use and crime are dramatically reduced. All this resulted from one judge in a very liberal state.

Arizona Is Going to Try Enforcing Probation as they did in Hawaii

Ever since the abominable Gov. Janet Napolitano and her radical leftist veto and obstructionist policies left Arizona to neuter Homeland Security, Arizona has been passing a series of laws expanding citizens' freedom, cracking down on illegal aliens and their crimes, and reversing some of the insane liberal burden Arizonans suffered under.

If conservative legislators work with a conservative governor, then much can be accomplished toward equal justice under law and a civil society.

Now, Arizona is trying a probation reform based on Hawaii's HOPE. Here are some excerpts from a recent story in the local paper.

Kim Smith Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, July 4, 2010 12:00 am

In one way, at least, it's good to be a drug addict on probation in Arizona.

Probationers are typically allowed to test positive for drugs multiple times before they are finally hauled into court.

If they own up to violating this rule or that rule, and ask the court for a second or a third chance, they have every reason to expect those prayers will be answered.

Not anymore. Starting this fall, punishment will be swift and certain for those selected to participate in Project SAFE, or Swift Accountable Fair Enforcement. Use drugs on probation, and go straight to jail.

Six years ago, officials in Hawaii grew tired of people on probation missing drug-testing appointments, using drugs or absconding, so they developed HOPE, or Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement. source.

There is Hope for Arizona

Unlike California where the radical leftists have pushed the state so far left that it may never recover, there is hope for good government in Arizona. However, we must temper the optimism with the obvious warning. Hope will remain only so long as Arizona voters continue to support the good and the decent among our politicians, the patriotic conservatives.