The benefits of HOPE in Hawaii

I received this e-mail from the folks at Pew yesterday, which provides a very positive report on a reentry program in our 50th state:

Established in 2004, Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program identifies probationers at high risk of violating the conditions of their community supervision, and deters them from using drugs and committing crimes with frequent and random drug tests backed up by swift, certain and short jail stays.

The Impact of Hawaii’s HOPE Program on Drug Use, Crime and Recidivism, produced by the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States and the National Institute of Justice, summarizes new research conducted by Pepperdine University and the University of California, Los Angeles.  The research shows that HOPE probationers were significantly less likely to be arrested for a new crime, to use drugs and to have their probation revoked.  As a result, HOPE participants also served or were sentenced to an average of 48 percent fewer days in jail and prison.

The one-year randomized controlled trial found that HOPE probationers were:

• 55 percent less likely to be arrested for a new crime;
• 72 percent less likely to use drugs;
• 61 percent less likely to skip appointments with their supervisory officer; and,
• 53 percent less likely to have their probation revoked.

The U.S. Department of Justice provides the full evaluation online, and additional HOPE materials are available on our website.  In addition, HOPE was the subject of an article in the January 10, 2010 edition of The New York Times Magazine.