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Editor’s note: For Hawaii’s Aug. 10 primary election, Civil Beat asked candidates to answer some questions about where they stand on various issues and what their priorities will be if elected.

The following came from Steve Alm, candidate for Honolulu prosecutor. He has no opponent.

Go to Civil Beat’s Election Guide for general information, and check out other candidates on the General Election Ballot.

1. What do you see as the most pressing issue facing your office? What will you do about it?

Crime is a real concern. While the perception of many is that crime is increasing, crime is actually down on Oahu overall in 2023 compared to 2022, and down for the past 30 years. Crime, however, is higher in some areas than others and for victims of crime, those statistics won’t matter.

To reduce crime even further, particularly in certain higher-crime areas, the Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney will employ many strategies.

These crime-reducing strategies include Weed & Seed and Safe & Sound. We are currently working with HPD and our community partners implementing W&S in Kalihi-Palama/Chinatown, Waipahu and Ewa/Ewa Beach, and S&S in Waikiki. There have been significant reductions in crime in these neighborhoods and I hope to expand S&S to other challenged neighborhoods in the future.

We will continue to use the habitual property offender and the habitual violent misdemeanor offender statutes to charge serial defendants with felonies. Other crime-reducing strategies include SUDA-Fast and Jail Diversion, and we are working with the Judiciary to reinstitute HOPE Probation, derailed during the pandemic. Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement is the single-most effective strategy for reducing arrests for new crimes and probation failures.

2. The Honolulu prosecuting attorney’s office has been the subject of a federal corruption probe and criminal investigation over pay-to-prosecute campaign finance practices. Given the campaign system, how do you ensure integrity in the criminal justice process?

Given our campaign system of individuals and organizations making donations to candidates for prosecutor, I can say that as least as far as I am concerned, so far, and for the next four years, whether a case is charged or not depends on the facts and the law, regardless of whether a donation has been made or not.

For example, if a union donated to my campaign, that would have no impact on whether I initiated a prosecution against one or more of its members or not. I realize that success in this area will depend on the integrity of the prosecuting attorney at the time and whom he or she hires and promotes and then holds accountable. It is critically important, then, to elect a prosecutor who is honest and has integrity.

The position holds a lot of power and discretion, and it is essential that it is used fairly and responsibly.

Given that it is a non-partisan position, and there will be no incumbent in 2028, perhaps the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (and the Honolulu mayor, for that matter) might be a good place to try public financing for the next election.

3. Is Honolulu a safe place to live? What can be done to improve the safety of residents and visitors on the island?

Honolulu is, overall, a safe city. It always ranks in the bottom 10 nationally for violent crime. Despite some recent high-publicity cases, Honolulu has a very low murder rate, compared with other U.S. cities of comparable size.

At the same time, that certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t violent crimes and people that need to be arrested, held accountable and sent to prison to protect the rest of us.

Highly coordinated efforts with HPD and the community have led to big reductions in crime in the three W&S sites and in S&S Waikiki (for example, in the latter, murder reduced by 28%, robbery by 27%, sexual assault by 20% and assault by 13%).

These efforts shouldn’t be seen as short-term fixes but need to continue and be made sustainable. For example, the first W&S effort in Kalihi-Palama/Chinatown in 1997 through 2001 helped to reduce crime by 70% in four years. Unfortunately, the “Weed” efforts were abandoned and, while the “Seed” efforts continued, crime and homeless problems returned. Now that the Weed component is back and working with the Seed efforts, conditions have improved and need to continue. Additional S&S initiatives will be started in the future.

4. What role does the prosecutor’s office have in criminal justice reform, particularly in keeping low-level offenders out of the corrections system?

The role of the prosecutor’s office is to protect society, be the voice for victims and seek justice. That means holding people accountable but doing so in a fair and just way.

Each case needs to be treated individually. That means identifying the relatively few who are truly dangerous to society and those who just won’t stop stealing and need to be imprisoned to protect the rest of society.

For the remainder, the vast majority, we triage those with mental health and/or substance use issues into SUDA-Fast, the Jail Diversion Program for the seriously mentally ill, Drug Court, Mental Health Court, Veteran’s Court, Women’s Court, Juvenile Drug Court and Girls’ Court.

The single most effective research-proven strategy for helping defendants on probation or deferral in Honolulu to succeed and avoid going to prison is Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement, or HOPE Probation. The HOPE strategy was shown by top-quality research to reduce arrests for new crimes by 55% and reduce probation failures and prison sentences by 50% (including by 42% for Native Hawaiians).

The HOPE strategy was derailed by Covid but my office is currently working with the Judiciary to reinstate HOPE as it had been operating successfully in the past.

5. What would you do to address racism and discriminatory treatment in law enforcement?

We have had all the deputy prosecutors take repeated implicit bias training and all city employees have mandatory anti-discrimination courses.

When our deputy prosecutors charge cases, they don’t consider the race, ethnicity or sexual orientation of a suspect. Instead, they are concerned with whether, based on the evidence and the law, we can prove a charge or charges against a person beyond a reasonable doubt.

We have addressed discrimination (gender and otherwise) in my office itself by correcting significant gender pay disparities when I took office in January of 2021. We subsequently instituted hiring panels to interview all potential new law clerks and deputy prosecutors (my predecessor did all the hiring). We then set up a salary structure for the deputies, patterned after the HGEA’s collective bargaining agreement for Scientists and Professionals. We created a path through the office starting with Misdemeanor/Traffic Division (Level 1) up to Special Prosecution Division and the Domestic Violence Felony Team (Level 5).

We also solicit applicants for team captain and division chief positions internally and use hiring panels there, as well. Finally, we instituted a first-in, first-out of each Division policy for well-performing deputies. This has eliminated the potential for bias whether intended or otherwise.

6. What would you do to strengthen police accountability in Hawaii, including the role the prosecutor’s office plays in use-of force cases?

The role of the prosecutor’s office is to protect society, be the voice for victims and seek justice. That means holding people accountable and holding firm to the idea that no one is above the law.

Since I took office, we have instituted a policy of independently investigating all officer-involved lethal uses of force, and we will continue to do that going forward. 

7. What other issue would you like to address or make the voters aware of?

There are many people who have mental health and/or substance use disorders in the criminal justice system. Many can be treated and helped outside our jails and prisons, places that are not really equipped to deal with mental health issues.

Many of our efforts and strategies are aimed at that very population. That includes SUDA-Fast, the Jail Diversion Program, all the Specialty Courts (e.g., Mental Health Court, Drug Court, Veteran’s Court, etc.) and HOPE Probation.

We have also discovered that the various entities involved in criminal justice have data systems that do not talk to each other. This results in an ineffective and inefficient information system, relying on duplicative data entries which are prone to operator errors.

To remedy that, my office is working with the University of Hawaii to develop a plan to integrate these systems to allow more data sharing. Doing so would enhance public safety, inform data-driven policy and decision-making, facilitate coordination and collaboration among criminal justice agencies, save employee time and support research and analysis of crime prevention and reduction strategies.