By Andrew Gomes
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
HONOLULU — State lawmakers are pushing hard this year to clamp a pipeline established three decades ago to house convicted Hawaii felons in out-of-state prisons.
Such transfers began in 1995 under then-Gov. Ben Cayetano as an anticipated temporary means to relieve overcrowding in the state’s only medium-security prison for male inmates, and have since frustrated prison-reform advocates and others including state leaders and family members of inmates locked up far from home.
This year, more than a dozen members of Hawaii’s House of Representatives set out to force the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to bring back most of the roughly 800 Hawaii inmates from a privately operated Arizona prison within five years.
Some legislators also seek an outright end to exporting isle prisoners, a practice one prominent local justice reform advocate calls unconscionable exile.
“It is shameful that Hawaii refuses to take care of all of our people who are incarcerated by the Hawaii government,” Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, said in written testimony on a bill pending at the Legislature aimed at mandating prisoner returns.
Yet legislative leaders advancing the bill don’t appear to have clear expectations for how such returns can be realistically achieved.
Uncertain path
House Bill 1769, introduced in January by 13 House members led by Rep. Jeanne Kapela (D, Volcano-Hawaiian Ocean View ), proposed having DCR cut the number of prisoners at private facilities outside the state by 25% before July 1, 2029 , and then another 50% by July 1, 2031.
DCR Director Tommy Johnson has described the bill as unreasonable and unworkable given that the agency, which operates one medium-security correctional facility filled far beyond its intended capacity, has no control over the volume of convicted felons entering the prison system.
“I want to make it clear: We want to bring our inmates home,” Johnson told members of the House Public Safety Committee during a Feb. 11 hearing. “But I do not control the population in the state. There’s no way I would be able to bring 25% back because I can’t control the population. The courts and (the Hawaii Paroling Authority ) controls the population.”
DCR controls about 5% of prisoners held in Hawaii who are eligible for work furlough and extended furlough programs.
“That is it,” Johnson said, adding that he views the HB 1769 as well-intended but incomplete because achieving its goal would require building another medium-security prison estimated to cost between $800 million and $900 million.
Johnson also said such a facility would cost $45 million to $55 million a year to operate with a staff of 350 to 450.
The agency has been working for several years with limited financial support from the Legislature to build a new, bigger jail to replace Oahu Community Correctional Center , but jails are for pretrial detainees and short-term inmates convicted of misdemeanors, as well as felons nearing release.
DCR’s only medium-security prison is Halawa Correctional Facility, which was designed to hold up to 496 offenders and recently housed 818.
Overcrowding relief
Halawa opened in 1987 but soon faced capacity issues after a steep rise in the prison population that prompted public safety officials in 1992, under the administration of then-Gov. John Waihee to propose building a 1,000-bed prison at an estimated cost of $110 million.
That plan was carried on by Cayetano, who took office in 1994 but found little support from the Legislature to fund a new prison amid a flagging economy. So in 1995, Cayetano transferred 300 Hawaii inmates to Texas prisons to relieve overcrowding and reduce incarceration expenses.
“It is crisis management, and we’re managing this crisis,” he said at the time.
Critics long have contended that sending Hawaii inmates to mainland prisons curtails family and legal support connections while also exposing inmates to outside gang culture that return to Hawaii when their sentences are completed.
Advocates of ending inmate exports also have said that for-profit private prisons have financial incentives to treat prisoners poorly, and that monitoring such care by state officials is susceptible to shortcomings.
By 2005, exported prisoner volume had ballooned to represent nearly half of Hawaii inmates, or 1,828 individuals in privately operated facilities in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arizona and Kentucky at a cost of $36 million that year.
Currently, about 800 inmates are held outside the state, all at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona .
There have been previous attempts to end the prisoner export pipeline, but none were realized.
In 1998 as part of a continued push by Cayetano to build a new prison, the Legislature appropriated $2.2 million for planning but then refused to appropriate $130 million for construction in 1999.
Other efforts included a plan in 2003 by two-term Republican Gov. Linda Lingle to build a new prison, and a pledge in 2010 by then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie , a Democrat like Waihee and Cayetano, to work as quickly as possible to bring all Hawaii inmates back from mainland prisons.
Last year, five House members led by Kapela introduced HB 1376 aiming to have the state end use of private prisons to house Hawaii inmates. But that bill stalled after two committee hearings and an issue raised by the state Department of the Attorney General about the bill possibly being subject to legal challenge on constitutional grounds.
Shifting goals
The original goal of this year’s bill calling for returning 25% of Hawaii’s out-of-state prisoner population by July 1, 2029 , as a first step equates to 200 prisoners.
State Rep. Garner Shimizu (R, Moanalua-Aliamanu-Foster Village ) stated during the Feb. 11 hearing on HB 1769 that an initial 25% cut, or perhaps 20% instead, might realistically be achievable.
“We need to just move the needle forward,” he said. “And I think that’s what the public is seeking … ; something where it’s not just stuck where we’re at but we’re progressing to a place where we’re showing compassion to our people; we’re showing that we’re trying our best.”
Johnson said in response that an unknown number of convicted felons, including some ordered to prison by courts and some returned to prison for parole violations, could enter the system over the next three years, making the bill’s goal to bring back 200 inmates from Saguaro possibly unrealistic.
“So I just want to make that clear, that since I don’t know how many are coming, I can’t guarantee I can reduce the numbers because I could get 400 (coming in),” he said.
Some proponents of the bill, including Christin Johnson with the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission and local attorney Carrie Ann Shirota , suggested DCR can use available bed space at two of its minimum-security prisons and two neighbor island jails to house about 425 inmates brought back from Saguaro.
But Johnson told the House Public Safety Committee that those facilities, which include dorm-type settings, lack security features needed for higher-security inmates at Saguaro. Changes to make those facilities safe, he said, would include double fencing, towers and cells costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
“If we really want to fix the problem, then we need to build a medium-security facility,” he said.
Rep. Della Au Belatti , chair of the committee and one of the bill’s introducers, told other committee members Feb. 18, ahead of a decision on the bill, that after hearing testimony she was troubled by the 75% reduction within five years called for in HB 1769.
Belatti (D, Makiki-Punchbowl) got the committee to amend the bill to require a 5% annual reduction starting July 1, 2031, after the initial 25% cut by July 1, 2029. Under this scenario, a complete phaseout would happen over 20 years.
Belatti also asked that the next House committee taking up the bill consider whether a phaseout should be tied to building a new prison in Hawaii.
The subsequent answer to that question from the chair of the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, Rep. David Tarnas, was a hard no after a bruising hearing for DCR.
Pushing ahead
Tarnas (D, Hawi -Waimea-Waikoloa), one of the bill’s introducers, suggested during a Feb. 25 hearing that DCR can safely reclassify security levels for inmates to allow more use of state minimum-security facilities where bed space is available.
Johnson said a reclassification study prompted DCR to begin a pilot program in February, and that results won’t be known until the end of this year.
Johnson also reiterated that an unpredictable volume of convicted felons sent to DCR in the future for incarceration makes the need for a new medium-security prison in Hawaii a requirement for ceasing to house inmates on the mainland. A forced repatriation without adequate facility capacity, he added, could result in inmates living in inhumane conditions, leading to federal Department of Justice intervention.
Tarnas shot back that DCR needs to start looking at how — not whether — to implement prisoner returns without building new correctional facilities.
“I’m not asking for reasons why it won’t work,” Tarnas told Johnson. “I’m trying to figure out how we can make this work. And I think it’s clear that there have been policies and procedures within the department that have prevented this from working … .
“Personally, I think we need to see better performance from the department to rehabilitate people so you can live up to the other half of your (department) name.”
Tarnas finished by saying, “Thank you for your good work, and I appreciate you working hard with your team to bring our people home, because it’s not happening.”
After the committee chaired by Tarnas advanced the bill, the full House voted 50-1 on March 10 to send the bill to the Senate .
On March 25, the Senate Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs amended the bill back to a more limited out-of-state prisoner reduction of 5% by July 1, 2027 , followed by 10% a year later and 15% the year after that.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee advanced the bill Wednesday without further change on a 13-0 vote.
Then Friday, the full Senate voted 25-0 to approve the bill, though Sens. Brandon Elefante (D, Aiea -Pacific Palisades- Pearl City ) and Sharon Moriwaki (D, Waikiki-Ala Moana-Kakaako) expressed reservations about the capacity to house returned inmates.
To send HB 1769 to Gov. Josh Green for action would require the House or Senate to negotiate a compromise draft that both chambers approve before the scheduled end of this year’s legislative session May 8.
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