A lawsuit filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming that prisoners on Oahu acquitted of any criminal charges are being held anyway, does not reflect a local problem, according to Kaua’i prison authorities. Kaua’i Community Correctional Center
A lawsuit filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming that prisoners on Oahu acquitted of any criminal charges are being held anyway, does not reflect a local problem, according to Kaua’i prison authorities.
Kaua’i Community Correctional Center Warden Neal Wagatsuma said the problems in the Wailua prison facility have more to do with overcrowding.
“If the guy goes to court here and is let off, he is free to go. We are in compliance. Another situation is pre-arraigned defendants (who are held at KCCC until their arraignment). They are taken back to the facility, issued their property, and then released,” Wagatsuma said.
“We are so pressed for space… we want to do the right thing, but not only for [the inmate’s] rights. We want to get them out [because] we are over our operating capacity (158). Our holding cells are full … we only have half of one module for regular male housing right now,” Wagatsuma noted.
“The [rehabilitation] programs we have are severely diluted (now) because of limited physical space. So we have small groups of [inmates] trying to make a lifestyle change, mixed in with other guys who are just trying to do time,” the warden said.
“Complaints are minimized. I try and talk to them every day but we have guys who don’t want to change and we have [to place] them on 24-lockdown,” Wagatsuma added.
And the increase of methamphetamine (“ice”) use, in addition to raising the crime rate on Kaua’i, causes other problems inside the institution, according to Wagatsuma.
“The norm now is for our inmates to have medical, physical, mental and emotional problems. All of a sudden they have to try and learn a whole new way of life. Much of our population today is mentally ill, to some degree,” Wagatsuma said.
“I was going to ask for more money, more staff next year. But the way things are now (referring to cuts throughout the state’s prison system), I don’t know,” Wagatsuma said.
The problems in Oahu, according to the ACLU, fall into quite a different category.
According to Associated Press reports, Brent White, the state’s ACLU legal director, said hundreds of Oahu defendants are held in holding cells, often shackled and strip-searched even after they have been acquitted and have a court order releasing them.
State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai has not commented directly upon the ACLU assertions.
A similar suit to the one filed in Hawai’i last week was settled in California this summer in favor of the ACLU.
California was assessed a $27 million penalty for treatment of inmates similar to what Oahu is being accused of.
Similar suits are currently ongoing in Florida and New York.
California, Florida, New York and Texas are the four states with the biggest inmate populations.
Hawai’i is the smallest state, so far, where such a suit, alleging inmate mistreatment after their ordered release, has been filed.
