Convicted graffiti offenders would be forced to do cleanup under legislative proposals calling for mandatory community service.

Efforts to combat graffiti, which has been plaguing neighborhoods across the state, are moving forward in both the House and Senate. The House Judiciary Committee yesterday advanced a bill that would, among other things, require convicted graffiti offenders to perform community service that helps eradicate or mitigate graffiti.

The Senate version of the measure would require minors convicted of leaving graffiti to not only remove it but perform at least 80 hours of community service wiping it out on other properties.

House and Senate lawmakers are expected to hash out the differences in conference committee negotiations. Currently, judges may order minors who commit graffiti or their parents or guardians to pay for repairing or replacing damaged property. The court also may order community service.

Graffiti has long been a major issue in communities statewide. While many believe graffiti vandals represent a range of backgrounds and ages, young people are mostly considered the offenders.

City and state agencies and utility companies have reported spending man-hours and thousands of dollars cleaning up graffiti, a seemingly unending problem. Students, community groups, and even individuals have also been working to clean up graffiti-infested areas in their neighborhoods.

"It's everywhere; it's a war zone sometimes," Aliamanu/Salt Lake/Foster Village Neighborhood Board Chairman Grant Tanimoto said, speaking on behalf of himself. "The community can't keep up. The government can't keep up."

Graffiti is one of the highest priorities for the Honolulu Police Department, District 3 Capt. Ron Bode said in written testimony to the committee. He said the department has recently increased its enforcement against offenders, with graffiti arrests growing from five in 2003 to 227 in 2005 and 294 last year.

Creating stiffer penalties as well as increased enforcement should reduce the graffiti in the community, he said.

The state Department of Transportation said its highways division spends more than 1,000 man-hours annually cleaning up graffiti around the state and that the agency is just "one of the many victims" of graffiti.

The Office of the Public Defender, in commenting on the Senate's version, said while it would be a good lesson to have convicted minors remove their own graffiti, the area where the graffiti was placed may be too dangerous to require defendants or their parents or guardians to remove it, and the state could be held liable if for injuries.

The office also said the court already has the discretion to require defendants to perform community service if appropriate and questioned which agency would be responsible for supervising the cleanup of graffiti.

The House's version of Senate Bill 228 that passed the Judiciary Committee yesterday also allows for people convicted of graffiti vandalism more than twice to face jail time and a $2,000 fine. Currently, the penalty applies to those convicted more than twice within a five-year period.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.