Hawaii Corrections By The Numbers: Incarceration Declined In 2020, And So Did Crime Rates 0 Critics of Hawaii’s criminal justice policies have argued for years this state locks up too many people unnecessarily. The pandemic tested that idea.
If Hawaii abruptly reduced the number of people locked up in its prisons and jails, would the local crime rates then spike as more criminals ran free? That debate has been going on for years, and was mostly theoretical — until the pandemic hit.
Data made public recently by the state Department of Public Safety shows Hawaii reduced its inmate populations in 2020 by more than most people realized at the time, and state crime statistics show Honolulu’s crime rates actually dropped that year.
In fact, Honolulu’s “index” crime rate for 2020 — which is used to measure overall crime trends here — dropped to its lowest level since the state began tracking that data in 1975.
Criminal justice reformers have long argued Hawaii locks up more people each year than is necessary to protect public safety, and they say the 2020 data proves that point. If nothing else, critics of the Hawaii system say the 2020 statistics show the relationship between locking people up and reducing crime is — at best — shaky.
Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative, said the per capita incarceration rate in Hawaii is higher than the rates of most nations other than the United States. The state’s per capita incarceration rate is much higher than the United Kingdom, Spain and Australia, and more than four times the rate of Canada, she said.
