For most Hawaii residents, sending neighbors to prison is like curbside trash pickup. We don't much care what happens after the truck leaves. The garbage is out of sight, the smell never touches our noses. There are two big differences: We sort our trash — regular, recyclable, green — so that things go to the right place. And prisoners come home, where they become our neighbors again. 

There are much better ways to proceed. They are cheaper. They are more pono. They are not rocket science. Other states have tried them, and they work, saving dollars, families and lives. They are the alternatives to incarceration that Senator Espero says that we should look at ... but who are "we"? 

The most recent task force assembled to address the shame of our imprisonment practices includes not a single representative of the community. Who is a new voice? Who has a new idea? Who will stand at the curb and say "no more" to treating our ohana like trash?