About 40% of Oʻahu Community Correctional Center inmates tested for coronavirus are positive

Lawyers for Equal Justice, comprised of lawyers who advocate for inmates, on Tuesday released a report that said prosecutors, politicians and the news media collectively inflamed public fears about the mandate and suggested it may have had a bearing on the court’s decision to halt its expedited release program.

Tom Helper, litigation director for the group, said the Supreme Court’s original release initiative was a “courageous” one aimed at “trying to prevent the very problem that we’re facing now.”

Government officials resisted the initiative “and worked to undermine the process and stop it from happening,” Helper said. Some ridiculed the concerns raised about the potential for outbreak. Prosecutors also released a list of re-offenders without context or full information, suggesting it would lead to a significant crime increase he said.

However, Helper said, “most of the people who were released were not re-arrested; most of the people who were re-arrested were arrested for things like homelessness-related offenses [like] sleeping in the park, or for technical offenses such as failing to call a probation officer.”

There were a few who committed serious crimes, but at a smaller percentage than during normal times and “in context, not even close to the crime wave or crime spike asserted by public officials.”

Will Caron, communications director for the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, said local media outlets “did have an impact in creating this false narrative by amplifying some of the false statements like the ones prosecutors were making.”

That had an impact on public perception, “which in turn contributed to the premature termination of the program and now we’re in this situation,” Caron said.