State public safety officials are looking into releasing as many as 300 inmates to ease Hawai’i’s overcrowded prisons, but Kaua’i Community Correctional Center has not yet received instructions to do so. Gov. Cayetano wants some inmates released early to avoid
State public safety officials are looking into releasing as many as 300 inmates to ease Hawai’i’s overcrowded prisons, but Kaua’i Community Correctional Center has not yet received instructions to do so.
Gov. Cayetano wants some inmates released early to avoid possible prisoner lawsuits stemming from overcrowded conditions.
Those eligible for release will be terminally ill prisoners, low level drug offenders in prison for drug possession, prisoners over age 65, foreigners who can be deported and those with less than a year to serve before their release, officials said.
“We are not going to be releasing people who are not going to be safe to release,” state Public Safety director Ted Sakai said. “Somebody in there for a heinous crime, where they killed somebody or committed a violent, sexual assault, we’re not going to consider.”
“Whenever we get overcrowded we have an increase in assaults,” Sakai said. “The calls to medical go up. The cost of corrections go up.”
“Every day we scramble to find space, particularly in the main building,” KCCC Warden Neal Wagatsuma said.
Inmates housed in the main building at KCCC are awaiting sentencing or transfer and considered a higher security risk than those outside. At KCCC, low-risk inmates are chosen to participate in “Lifetime Stand,” a program that incorporates physical drills, workforce training and a pledge to turn their lives around once . Wagatsuma said that he finds that fewer and fewer prisoners who want to change their lives.
As many as 300 inmates around the state will be released gradually, after careful review by the Hawaii Paroling Authority, said board chairman Alfred Beaver.
“I wouldn’t panic,” Beaver said. “My rule of thumb is if I am going to let a guy out, he is going to be my neighbor. So, I am going to have 300 neighbors right now, and I am not panicking.”
“We are forced to place many inappropriate inmates into the outside program. We hope the ones who come out there are serious about changing their criminal ways, but because of lack of space, we are forced to do this,” Wagatsuma said, “We’re trying to work hard with offenders during the time they are here.”
City of Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said violent and repeat property offenders should not be released. “I have tremendous concerns about releasing inmates for the sake of freeing up prison space,” Carlisle said.
“We’ve been anticipating this for some time. Because of the fiscal situation in the state, what else can we do? I think this is the only option,” Wagatsuma said of the impending inmate releases.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
