Aloha Members and Friends of the HJPA!

Your 2002-2003 Officers and members of the Board of Directors, wish to thank you for your patience and understanding while we have been busy reorganizing our duties and priorities. We have posted the new Officers and we are excited about the rest of the year. Our regular monthly meetings continue and Vice President Borges has lined up a great schedule of speakers for the year. Please make every effort to attend. Support the individuals who take time from their busy schedules to present their ideas and programs to the members of the HJPA. We have had a number of major events as well as several very informative monthly meetings. The following is a recap of the year so far:

January 4, 2002, kicked off the year for us with a full program. We started off with Ron Jones, past-president of the HJPA, performing the Installation ceremony for the 2002-2003 Officers. The officers sworn in were: President Ellie Kaanaana, Vice President Dovie Borges, Secretary Kevin Guerrero, Treasurer Lisa Hamada, Sgt. at Arms Jerry Postmus and immediate Past President Patrick O'Brien.

We immediately moved into our annual induction of members into the Hawaii Joint Police Association Hall of Fame. We had an appropriate ceremony to induct this years honorees as well as a celebration of Colonel Frank Steer's 101st birthday. Colonel Arnie Claudio, the MP Brigade-Hawaii Commander, gave a short speech honoring Colonel Steer and presented him with a symbolic medallion.

The following are this year's inductees and we all join together to thank them for their contributions to the security and well being of our community.

February 1, 2002, was our first general meeting and we were honored with a presentation by Assistant Chief of Police Boisse Correa, of the Honolulu Police Department. AC Correa's presentation focussed on Hawaii's Homeland Security plan and included a lot of enlightening information on what Hawaii has been doing to prepare for and help prevent terrorist threats.

March 1, 2002, brought on some organizational changes for HJPA. Lisa Hamada is now Secretary and Jon Tavares is our Treasurer. After all business was conducted, Vice President Borges introduced Judge Michael Town, from the First Circuit Court. Judge Town's presentation centered on "Restorative Justice: Good Idea or Oxymoron." We were all impressed with Judge Town's views on the progressiveness of restorative justice and the ability to rehabilitate certain individuals and make them contributing members of society. In brief summary, restorative justice seeks to balance fairly society's need to assure community safety, to make the victim whole and to provide for both offender accountability and services for the offender. There is a certain constructive shaming process at work with restorative justice such that offenders may eventually understand the harm caused and accept consequences more readily, including incarceration. Other victims may simply want nothing to do with offenders and wish to forget the entire incident. We can certainly understand these feelings.

Past-president Don Devaney also briefed us on a local hero, Mr. Issac Hoopii, a Hawaii born, Department of Defense Police Officer who was on duty at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He was personally responsible for the survival of several individuals, and his efforts were recognized by Mr. Devaney and our President Ellie Kaanaana in a private ceremony in Washington D.C. The HJPA is currently accepting donations to help bring Officer Hoopii to Hawaii to participate in the October Top Cop award luncheon.

April 5, 2002. First, President Kaanaana covered some business issues, including a report on the progress of the Salute to Women in Security & Law Enforcement luncheon coming up in May. Randy Mack also reported on a Hawaii Homeland Security seminar to be held on June 4th at Dave & Busters. Vice President Borges then introduced her Supervisor, Mr. Ted Sakai, the Director of the Department of Public Safety. Mr. Sakai discussed the current issues facing the prison system today. He discussed the inner workings and other facts regarding the state of Hawaii's prisons, as well as the inmates housed here, on the mainland and at the Federal Detention Center. He also gave a preliminary report on the relocation of OCCC to the Halawa Prison, which is still in the planning stages. It will be interesting to watch what changes Mr. Sakai can bring about to continue to safely house our criminals.

May 3, 2002, was the 4th Annual Salute to Women in Security & Law Enforcement. We honored 30 deserving women. See a special report in our awards section of this web page (coming soon). The luncheon was well attended and very festive. We had approximately 170 people, with several table sponsors, including the Department of Army, Department of Public Safety, Don Devaney, the family of Lt. Jacobo, Goodenow & Associates, HVISA, the Honolulu Police Department, the Oahu Community Correctional Facility, Royal Guard, Security Resources and Sonitrol of Hawaii, Inc. Our Keynote Speaker, Judge Marie Milks, brought down the house with her tales of unusual situations she's come across while sitting on the bench.

June 6, 2002, our general membership meeting began with the formalities and then a recap of the Salute to Women luncheon by Vice President Borges. President Kaanaana reported that she attended the first LEAL (Law Enforcement Appreciation Luncheon) meeting. The LEAL committee discussed the possibility of honoring Isaac Hoopii and determined that while he did not qualify for the Elwood J. McGuire award, they will incorporate a special award into their program. Vice President Borges then introduced our speaker, Dr. Barry Coyne, Sex Offender Administrator, Department of Public Safety. Dr. Coyne gave a very insightful (and as a mother of 2 young children, I must say unsettling) report on the status and treatment of Hawaii's incarcerated Sex Offenders. Some impressive stats based on the program that Dr. Coyne administers: 75-100 inmates are in the program and in four years the prison has had zero return rate for new sex crimes committed by released sex offenders. Out of 220 sex offenders released after treatment, no one was charged with a new sex crime. In this day of budget cuts, the State has increased the Sex Offender Treatment program budget by 80% and they stated that out of the 300 inmates that need to be released due to overcrowding, not one sex offender would be released. Dr. Coyne's basic explanation for the success of his program...Prison is a good place for a convicted sex offender. It takes them away from potential victims during treatment. His program regularly polygraphs the offenders in the program to make sure they are disclosing all violations. Most offenders don't brag about what they've done and live secretly so the polygraph forces them to give up the secrecy so that their treatment program can be geared towards the type of offense they've committed. Dr. Coyne also reminded us that Megan's law was overturned in November '01 (it basically required all released sex offenders to register with the State every 90 days, anytime, anywhere). Now they have to go to trial to prove or disprove the fact that they are dangerous.

Whew...that brings us pretty much up to date. We will post a monthly newsletter, beginning with a report on the July meeting. Again, thank you all for sticking with us through thick and very thin. Your encouragement and support is greatly appreciated. Aloha!