How A ‘First Step’ In Prison Reform Sparked A Public Backlash And A Likely Veto 0 The bail reform bill was seen as a minor adjustment — but the public outcry could make lawmakers wary of pursuing it again.
More than three years ago, a panel of Hawaii’s police chiefs, judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers came up with a package of proposals to overhaul the pretrial bail system. Their stated mission was to increase public safety while also reducing the number of inmates locked up in the state’s chronically overcrowded jails.
On Monday, Gov. David Ige is expected to announce he may veto one of that panel’s most ambitious proposals, approved by the Legislature this year as House Bill 1567. That measure would require that judges release without bail some of the people who are arrested for low-level, non-violent offenses.
Passage of the bill this year and the events leading up to Ige’s anticipated veto dramatically illustrate the chasm between reformers who want to overhaul Hawaii’s troubled correctional system, and a public that fears changes to Hawaii’s system of punishing crime.
