By Chad Blair
Civil Beat
HAWAII — Ted Sakai, director of the agency that oversees Hawaii’s prison system, rattled off his wishlist for the department. Among other things, he wants to add $4.6 million to his budget to pay for an additional 69 employees and cover an array of other expenses.
The state Senate’s Ways and Means chairman David Ige inspired laughs in the conference committee hearing room with his retort. “It seems like you have an inordinate number of No. 1 priorities,” he said.
In fact, everything on Sakai’s list is a priority for the Department of Public Safety.
That is because the agency is burdened with aging facilities, increasing overtime hours for staff, recurring demands for more mental health services, the reopening of a prison on the Big Island, a mandate to bring more Hawaii inmates home from prisons in Arizona, and the implementation of new requirements from the Justice Reinvestment Initiative that seeks to reduce recidivism and alleviate costs.
Sakai smiled and told Ige that his staff would work with the Ways and Means Committee to prioritize, but it was obvious that he wants as much support as he can get from the state.
Full story: Agency That Oversees Prisons Struggles to Fill Vacant Positions