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The candidates for the mayor's office recently answered a question about public safety in Maui County. Both Michael Victorino and Richard Bissen focused on increasing the number of police officers and supporting law enforcement. Their answers, while conventional, did not address the structural problems that the next mayor can do to ensure true public safety. People caught up in the criminal justice system tend to be some of the most vulnerable people in society. The mayor has an obligation to help those in dire need.
Many incarcerated people do not have homes. Many are victims themselves, which leads to addiction issues, mental health problems and homelessness. The answer is not more police officers to find them and shepherd them into an already overcrowded jail or enforcing more draconian laws and burying them further into a dehumanizing criminal justice system.
No matter who wins this race, I hope our next mayor will devote their time, energy and enough of the county budget to help these vulnerable people instead of policing them. The next mayor should find resources and be open to ideas for expansive mental health services. Imprisonment for those with mental health issues can be disastrous. Corrections officers are also short-staffed and have their hands full. Reports of inmates decompensating and in some tragic cases killing themselves have not gone unnoticed.
A program originally called the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (or "Letting Everyone Advance with Dignity") -- the LEAD program -- has been successful on Oahu. It was implemented on Maui, but has been severely defunded and only works with a couple of individuals at a time.
The LEAD program is a community-based, pre-booking diversion program that aims to improve public safety and reduce criminal behavior. Under the LEAD program model, law enforcement officers connect low-level, nonviolent offenders or individuals at high risk of arrest with social service providers instead of arresting them. The program connects these individuals with housing, case management and other services. I hope the next mayor will do what he can to bring Maui's LEAD program back to life and provide more housing and treatment options for program participants.
The next mayor should also focus on finding more resources for substance abuse treatment in Maui County. Sobriety is oftentimes the start to a law-abiding life. More places and opportunities for criminal defendants to get clean and prove to the judges in their cases, their families and themselves that they can set long-term goals is much needed in our county. Currently, many Maui residents must seek residential substance abuse treatment on other islands due to the lack of resources here.
Finally, while there has been a lot of talk about affordable housing, the next mayor must not forget to help those who have no housing right now. Homelessness is a sign of dire economic inequality. Those who live outside face a number of obstacles that many who have a roof over our heads take for granted. The next mayor should be sensitive to these difficulties instead of criminalizing the behaviors that develop due to chronic homelessness. Labeling people who struggle with homelessness, mental health and addiction issues as "criminals" is dehumanizing and fails to recognize the lack of resources that Maui County has to help those who are in need of services.
If the next mayor addresses these issues instead of simply advocating for more police, more criminal laws and more vulnerable people in our already overcrowded jail, we can get closer to true public safety. I invite the next mayor to come to the 2nd Circuit Court in Wailuku, particularly the district court "custody calendar" -- full of people too poor to bail out -- to see residents who are struggling with finances, family issues, substance abuse and mental health problems.
To rework and resolve serious structural problems of Maui's criminal justice system, I hope the next mayor includes not only the police union, rank and file officers and the Police Commission, but also the health director, doctors from Maui's mental health unit at the hospital, attorneys from the Attorney General's Office in charge of involuntary commitments, social justice advocates and defense attorneys. When everyone is at the table, we can make a bigger impact and bring about meaningful change.
* Danielle Sears is the supervising attorney of the Maui Office of the Public Defender.