Shortly after being sworn in to Hawaii’s First Circuit Court, Judge Steven Alm noticed a remarkable pattern. Probationers would repeatedly violate their probation terms, and circuit judges would routinely use their discretion to let them off with a warning. But at some point, perhaps after a dozen or more violations, the judge would decide to be strict, and assign the violator a prison sentence measured in years. Says Alm, “I thought, what a crazy way to try to change anybody’s behavior.” So Alm proposed almost exactly the opposite. In place of violation hearings scheduled a long time into the
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