Hawaii's prison system is wasting taxpayer money jailing people who need mental health care instead, but a program on Maui shows a cheaper fix is possible.

• Maui's jail population dropped sharply and overcrowding eased after a program called Maui New Partners in Healing started routing mentally ill offenders into treatment instead of lockup.
• The approach relies on the prosecutor's office, corrections, health officials, and courts working together so people never end up in jail custody in the first place.
• Oahu hasn't seen the same turnaround because the Honolulu prosecutor has been far more reluctant to send offenders into diversion programs.
• The state's corrections director says cutting the mentally ill jail population could let Hawaii shrink the planned replacement for the aging Oahu jail, saving millions in building and court costs.
• One lawmaker floated making counties pay the state for jail beds when local prosecutors over-rely on incarceration, as a way to push diversion forward.

Outlook: Officials say the money and legal tools are already in place, and the next step is simply getting all counties to actually use the diversion approach.