Why should we care?

Advertiser readers have raised this question repeatedly in letters and calls, responding to a three-day series outlining problems with the state's transfer of many convicted felons to prisons in other states.

The reaction is understandable. At a time when many of the working poor hold down multiple jobs simply to make ends meet, it's hard to muster much concern for inmates who chose crime or drugs rather than shouldering these personal responsibilities and who instead are living on the public dole.

But the critique of state practices does not arise from some soft-headed guilt or worry about a prisoner's creature comforts. The real issue is that inmate transfers compound the prison system's failure to deal with criminals productively.

Ultimately, most inmates complete their prison term and are released soon after their return to the Islands. And while there are some success stories, many are likely to slide back into criminal behavior. Clearly that holds no benefit for taxpayers.

These inmates may be out of sight and out of mind, but they're not out of the picture. They'll cycle back through the corrections system, uncorrected.

In this way, Hawai'i has allowed its prisons to decline continually, without any serious public reckoning of the true costs.

Those include a running tab for the repeat offenders, and for the needs of their children, many of whom grow up to follow the same path as their parents.

The state must break that cycle for as many people as possible, through strategies that deliver real results — not only for the benefit of the inmates, but in the best interest of everyone who lives here.