Steven S. Alm is an American lawyer who is the current

Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu The Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu is one of only two countywide elected positions in the City & County of Honolulu in the State of Hawai'i. The officeholder is responsible for the prosecution of people for offenses to the laws and regulations ...

. A former

Hawaii circuit court The Hawaii state circuit courts are the trial courts of general jurisdiction in Hawaii. They are the primary civil and criminal courts of the Hawaii State Judiciary. The circuit courts are the only Hawaii State court (United States), state courts ...

judge and

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

, he was sworn into the position of prosecutor on January 2, 2021.

Early life and education

Alm was born in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the islan ...

, living in

Manoa Mānoa (, ) is a valley and a residential neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. The neighborhood is approximately three miles (5 km) east and inland from downtown Honolulu and less than a mile (1600 m) from Ala Moana and Waikiki at . Neigh ...

and later

Kaimuki Kaimukī is a residential neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. History In the 19th century the area was a farm of King Kalākaua, where ostriches roamed wild over the mountain side. It later became the site of a carnation farm for ...

. His parents were professors at the

University of Hawaiʻi The University of Hawaiʻi System, formally the University of Hawaiʻi and popularly known as UH, is a public college and university system that confers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through three universities, seven com ...

College of Education, and he and his brother attended University Lab School. He worked for

Dole Cannery James Drummond Dole (September 27, 1877 – May 20, 1958), also known as the "Pineapple King", was an American industrialist who developed the pineapple industry in Hawaii. He established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (HAPCO) which was later r ...

in the summers, beginning after tenth grade, and later as a

taxi driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and ...

. Alm attended the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa (University of Hawaii—Mānoa, UH Mānoa, Hawai'i, or simply UH) is a public land-grant research university in Mānoa, a neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawa ...

for two years before making a

college transfer College transfer is the anticipated movement students consider between education providers and the related institutional processes supporting those secondary and post-secondary learners who actually do move with completed coursework or training tha ...

to the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

, where he received undergraduate and graduate degrees in

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. ...

. While at the University of Oregon, he met his future wife, Haunani; they have one son.

Legal qualifications

Alm attended the

McGeorge School of Law University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law is a private, American Bar Association (ABA)-approved law school in the Oak Park neighborhood of the city of Sacramento, California. It is part of the University of the Pacific and is located on t ...

in Sacramento and passed the Hawaii bar in October 1985.

Career

After working at

West Publishing Company West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West ha ...

from 1983 to 1985, Alm began his legal career in the office of the

in 1985, where he was director of the division focused on the district court and

family court Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintif ...

U.S. Attorney

Alm was appointed the

United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii The United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii — also known as the United States Attorney and U.S. Attorney — is the chief law enforcement officer representing the federal government in the United States District Court for the Di ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...

in 1994, and led the local

Weed and Seed The Community Capacity Development Office (CCDO) is an office of the United States Department of Justice and a component of the Office of Justice Programs. The mission is to work within local communities to reduce crime and improve the quality of ...

program, coordinating

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term ...

and providers of

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or adminis ...

for a crime prevention effort in Chinatown and

Kalihi Kalihi is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi, United States. Split by the Likelike Highway (Route 63), it is flanked by downtown Honolulu to the east and Mapunapuna, Moanalua and Salt Lake to the west. Kalihi is the ...

– Pālama. He has claimed that the program reduced crime in those areas by 70% over three years, and that the rate began to rise again after he left the U.S. Attorney position.

Circuit court judge

Alm subsequently served as a judge on the Hawaii First Circuit Court from 2001 to 2016. In 2004, he founded Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE), a program intended to reduce violations of

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences ( alternatives to incarceration), suc ...

by people at high risk for

recidivism Recidivism (; from ''recidive'' and ''ism'', from Latin ''recidīvus'' "recurring", from ''re-'' "back" and ''cadō'' "I fall") is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of th ...

, especially people arrested for

drug-related crime A drug-related crime is a crime to possess, manufacture, or distribute drugs classified as having a potential for abuse (such as cocaine, heroin, morphine and amphetamines). Drugs are also related to crime as drug trafficking and drug producti ...

s. The program went on to be used in some form by 32 other states. He retired from his position as a judge on August 31, 2016, and was subsequently honored by the

Honolulu City Council Honolulu City Council is the legislature of the City and County of Honolulu, the capital and largest city in Hawaii, Hawai'i, the fiftieth state in the United States. The City and County of Honolulu is a municipal corporation that manages govern ...

for his founding of and advocacy for HOPE.

Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu

After campaigning with the endorsement of the

State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO) is a police union and political action committee located in Honolulu which represents police across the state of Hawaii. Consisting of a separate chapter for each of the four counties ...

on a platform of restoring the public's trust in the prosecutor's office, and defeating former Honolulu Deputy Prosecutor

Megan Kau Megan is a Welsh feminine given name, originally a diminutive form of Margaret. Margaret is from the Greek μαργαρίτης (''margarítēs''), Latin ''margarīta'', "pearl". Megan is one of the most popular Welsh-language names for women in W ...

in the election for the position, Alm was elected to a four-year term as Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu. He was

sworn in Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to gi ...

on January 2, 2021 by

Mark E. Recktenwald Mark E. Recktenwald (born October 8, 1955) is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii. Background and career Recktenwald was born to Bill Recktenwald, a patent attorney, and Connie Recktenwald, a high school English teacher. He grew up ...

Neal S. Blaisdell Center The Neal S. Blaisdell Center is a community center near downtown Honolulu, Hawaii. The complex has a multi-purpose arena, concert hall, exhibition hall, galleria, meeting rooms, Waikiki Shell and others. Constructed in 1964 on the historic W ...

. He was 67 years old at the time. Dozens of people were additionally sworn in as deputy prosecutors during the ceremony. In addition to restoring public trust, Alm additionally stated his intent to train deputy prosecutors in

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ...

and trial skills, divide them into specialized teams, and consider restructuring the office. In his

100-day plan 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, which was shared in a

press conference A press conference or news conference is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicians, corporations, non-governmental or ...

on January 12, 2021, Alm shared that he intended to be more aggressive in prosecuting crimes including domestic violence and

child sex trafficking Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child pr ...

; he also expressed support for the

Honolulu Police Department The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) is the principal law enforcement agency of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, headquartered in the Alapa'i Police Headquarters in Honolulu CDP. Officially recognized as a part of the government of t ...

in investigating

home invasion A home invasion, also called a hot prowl burglary, is a sub-type of burglary (or in some jurisdictions, a separately defined crime) in which an offender unlawfully enters into a building residence while the occupants are inside. The overarching i ...

s targeting old people.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alm, Steven S. 1950s births Living people University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni United States Attorneys for the District of Hawaii Circuit court judges in the United States Hawaii state court judges Politicians from Honolulu University of Oregon alumni District attorneys in Hawaii University of the Pacific (United States) alumni University Laboratory School (Honolulu, Hawaii) alumni