Each week Editorial and Opinion Editor Jeanne Mariani-Belding hosts The Hot Seat, our opinion-page blog that brings in elected leaders and people in the news and lets you ask the questions during a live online chat.

On The Hot Seat last week was Rep. Cindy Evans, chairwoman for the House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee.

Here is an excerpt from that Hot Seat session. To see the full conversation, go to The Hot Seat blog at www.honoluluadvertiser.com/opinion and click on "The Hot Seat." (Names of questioners are screen names given during our online chat.)

Jason: Can we get it together on the issue of overcrowded prisons? Now we're talking about temporary tents. Give us a break. Either build more or change the way you sentence people. That's common sense. What do you plan to do on this?

Rep. Cindy Evans: I agree with your comment that we should build (more prisons) and change the way we sentence people. First, I have been working with my Senate counterpart who chairs Public Safety to encourage more community-based and minimum-security facilities to be built or provided for by nonprofits to house our inmates. If you did not know, the Department of Public Safety is completing a classification study to determine custody levels of those inmates who are currently in correctional facilities. It appears we have 25 percent to 30 percent of our inmates qualifying for community-based facilities.

Second, I question the trend of mandating sentences and taking away from the judge the ability to determine the minimum sentencing. As chair I would like to see more reintegration and reentry programs while an inmate is in our correctional system so they can succeed when they return home.

Tina: There are many people in prison due to drugs. Is there anything in the works to help with the drug problems? Prisons are not solutions for people with drug problems. I think rehabilitation is better.

Evans: I think the most innovative approach is our efforts at the Legislature on early childhood education. We do have programs for our inmates who want to participate in them, but we have to work with our children at a early age to give them the tools and education they need.

Bill Punini Prescott: We Hawaiians of the VFW are really ticked off at those who are harassing our soldiers over training areas they've used for over 60 years. Most of them are non-Hawaiian Christians who hustle people to go to Makua with ads in Westside Stories. Our elected leaders brought our soldiers here and they are expected to perform in combat for us. Why haven't we heard any supporting words for our soldiers from members of the Legislature, like those in the Military Affairs Committee?

Evans: Bill, I appreciate your comments. My committee has been passing legislation to support veterans which falls under the state's office of veterans services. My parents were World War II vets and I know how important men and women of the military are to our freedom and our country's future. From my perspective the community supports military training but wants to be sure the environment or important cultural sites are protected from degradation.

Tim McGrath: I agree with Mr. Punini (Prescott), Hawai'i has had a long association with the military. Why do we hamstring them?

Also what do you think about the breaking news about 1,000 more soldiers on O'ahu?

Evans: You must be referring to environmental impact statements. Otherwise, I do not believe we are hamstringing the military.

I believe our country is moving their forces into the Pacific to deal with the changes in India and China. And we must not forget all of the other Pacific countries. Thus, it's no surprise to me that our military is increasing. Hawai'i is strategically located and we will play a role along with Alaska, Washington State, California, and Guam in the military buildup.

Xoxon: I will ask you the question that your colleague in the Senate dodged two weeks ago. What is your opinion on the argument currently going on in the state Legislature about corporate campaign contributions? More importantly, would you be for or against a total ban on corporate campaign contributions in the state of Hawai'i?

Evans: I'm for the current law limiting corporate campaign contributions. Corporations should be limited but allowed participation in the process like others. It does bother me how corporations have more money to hire lobbyists than an individual who has to work to make a living in Hawai'i.

Sal: What can we do to keep doctors on the Big Island?

Evans: I think we should interview doctors who are leaving Hawai'i to find out what was the overriding factor that caused them to leave. In personal conversations with doctors, I have heard they can make more money elsewhere, they do not like how long it takes for the state to reimburse for Medicaid, they are unhappy with the amount of paperwork to fill out, they cannot find staff, their costs of medical malpractice insurance has gone way up, they feel our state is too litigious, they do not get enough reimbursement from the insurance companies, and there are not enough patients to have a profitable practice.

Given the above, I believe legislators need to work on each item to find solutions. This will most likely take many years to accomplish.

Bill: What are you doing to get back the land that the military has that they are not using? For example, Bellows beach — why can't the state get that land back and use it for affordable housing instead of putting it up to bid with these big developers who will only build expensive homes on it?

Evans: I'm not well versed on the federal requirement for identifying lands as surplus property, but I do believe the state has preferential opportunity to acquire the land when surplused. I have seen resolutions asking our congressional delegation in requesting the military to work with us on using federal lands that seem to be unused by the military.

WilliamK: I've heard that before. I think the state needs to make more noise to get our land back. The military took all the best pieces of land during the war and I think we should get some of that back. Auwe to the military.

Lisa: With all the news coverage going on and the rally held at the Capitol by Campbell students, what is being done to help our students? Children should all have an equal opportunity to learn in a safe, quiet, comfortable environment.

Evans: From personal experience growing up in Illinois where the temperatures were over 90 degrees, I can tell you how hard it was to sit in a classroom and learn.

The Department of Education should work with building designers to look at better ventilation and the movement of air. The students and teachers can challenge themselves and the department to finding renewable energy solutions such as solar panels. Why do I say this? Because the buildings that are older are inefficient and the costs of air conditioning can be the challenge to overcome and get support from the Board of Education and the Legislature.

CDGCDG: A recent article in West Hawai'i Today addresses the problem of afterschool transportation for Waikoloa Village students who attend Kealakehe High School in Kona. Can you discuss what are the "next steps" to correcting the problem, and how the community and parents can help?

Evans: The next step is educating the decision makers within the Department of Education on the issue of the amount of time spent in transportation. I'm excited about an idea that one of my staff members came up with that would use modern technology, WiFi, allowing the students to have Internet access on the bus.

I want to bring to the attention of the Board of Education the amount of youth who live in Waikoloa. The parents can help me by writing letters of support for a high school closer to the Waikoloa community.

JohnK: We all know that when there is an accident, fire or downed telephone poles on Farrington Highway on the Wai'anae Coast, the traffic jam and blockage is horrendous and lasts for hours and sometimes days. Why can't the state buy back from the military the land that Kolekole Road is on and use it as an alternate route to town and the 'Ewa/Kapolei area? It would free up a lot traffic along Farrington Highway and the H-1 Freeway and the residents on the Wai'anae Coast wouldn't be held captive.

Evans: Though I'm not a resident of O'ahu, I think your idea has merit. One of my colleagues from Maui introduced a bill to require the Department of Transportation to come up with an alternative route for traffic when the highway is damaged during a natural or man-made disaster. This is a good exercise, which could be repeated in other locales across the state.

This is most important to the safety of the residents of Wai'anae, and I hope you ask your representative to bring this to our attention for legislation next year.

Jen: I was very disappointed to see your name listed as an introducer to House Resolution 153 and House Concurrent Resolution 180, requesting the general assembly of the United Nations to officially commemorate cockfighting as a global sport. With all of the important issues facing our Islands, why would you support glorifying a practice which is outlawed in Hawai'i (and 48 other states)? The resolutions state "even the American Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson recognized the value of cockfighting, as participants in that sport," as somehow justifying the practice. Representative Evans, there are many things our founding fathers practiced (slavery, growing cannabis, etc.) which in hindsight today I doubt very seriously you or any of the other introducers would glorify. Cockfighting is a cruel, inhumane practice, which serves no purpose. Please explain why you support cockfighting and helped introduce these resolutions.

Evans: What I support is the recognition of cultural practices that are common across the world and believe cockfighting has been a common practice in Hawai'i for a long time. Regarding your concern about cockfighting and it being a cruel and inhumane practice, I remain open to the discussion that in fact it may be inhumane.

I believe a legislator has to think about what the social values are in the community they represent. For example, we are passing more tough-on-crime bills because our community wants us to be more tough on crime. Eventually if the community sends a strong message that cockfighting is no longer acceptable in Hawai'i I believe we will ban cockfighting, and I could support the ban. From where I sit, I have not heard that our community is ready to ban cockfighting.

Everyone Thinks They Know Better: There are a bunch of proposals floating in the Legislature that basically seek to micromanage the Department of Public Safety on many different levels. Other than Rep. Hanohano, a former ACO, I think it's very fair to ask what credentials or correctional experience do you or your legislative partners-in-crime have to try to impose ill-conceived policies upon this department that are rooted in absolutely zero professional or even personal understanding of what it takes to run a prison, much less a statewide prison system?

Evans: The comment about partners-in-crime distracts from what I think you are asking. Why do we consider bills? People have brought to us issues about the effectiveness of the Department of Public Safety. In an effort to improve outcomes by the department, it is our job as legislators to look for solutions.

You are correct that we should not micromanage, but as policymakers we can pass laws to give policy direction to the department.

Sharon: I understand that you have been very involved with the issue of prisons and Hawai'i's inmates and I read your recent Honolulu Advertiser letter to the editor on the governor's announced plan to build tent prisons. What do you think of that idea and why can't we seem to get it together and build our own modern state prison? And also I've heard you recently visited Hawai'i's prisoners on the Mainland. What does it matter if they do their time here or there?

Evans: On the Mainland the people who run the prison are for profit, and the people who run the prison are not culturally sensitive to our people.

Second, the department keeps going through directors, so we have not had consistent leadership to pursue solutions regarding facilities and what type of facilities to build in Hawai'i.

Third, we all have a vision of what a tent looks like. Mine conjures up a structure that could not withstand high winds or 24-hour, 7-days-a-week usage.