Steve Alm - Guest Speaker on Zoom

Retired Oahu Circuit Court Judge and former U.S. Attorney Steve Alm will be our first outside guest speaker on Zoom this Thursday 4/16/20. 

In 2004, Mr. Alm created Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program.  Compared to regular probation, HOPE has more supervision, immediate consequences for violations, but also incentives for following the terms.  “People on HOPE are going to get charged with new crimes, there’s no question about that. But if they weren’t on HOPE, they’d be on regular probation and we have research showing people on HOPE are being charged with new crimes, 10 years down the road, 22 percent less than people on regular probation,” Alm said.

Alm admits HOPE isn’t perfect, and there are critics. But it’s good enough that more than 30 states have created a probation program modeled after HOPE.