The ACLU of Hawaiʻi is demanding “swift action” to deal with violence in the state correctional system after an inmate at the Oʻahu Community Correctional Center was killed in an assault by a cellmate.
Eric Scotton’s death early Wednesday appears to be the third homicide in the Hawaiʻi prison system in the past year, an unusually large number for any single year.
According to two sources, Scotton, 33, was being held with two other inmates in a cell designed for one or two inmates in a portion of the jail that is used to house mentally ill prisoners.
The sources who have knowledge of the incident also said Scotton’s alleged attacker was a sentenced felon. That is unusual because inmates who are convicted and sentenced for felonies are generally housed in prisons. Jails such as OCCC are normally used to hold people who are awaiting trial or have been convicted on less serious misdemeanor charges.
According to Honolulu police, Scotton’s alleged attacker was a 49-year old prisoner, and police have classified the case as a first-degree murder investigation.
ACLU of Hawai‘i said in a statement Friday that the “ongoing pattern of violence” in facilities operated by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation “demands that swift action be taken.”
Executive Director Salmah Y. Rizvi said in the statement that prisoners at OCCC “have been enduring abhorrent conditions for far too long.”
“Compounded by the lack of sufficient staffing, this most recent tragedy is a solemn reminder that our public safety system is killing people,” she said in the statement. “In this case, a pretrial detainee — a man who had not yet been convicted of a crime — should have never been punished, let alone killed. He was entitled to protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Scotton was awaiting trial on charges of arson and attempted second-degree murder. He allegedly stabbed another resident at the property where he was living in Mānoa in 2023, and also attempted to set the same man on fire.
The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a written statement that staff at OCCC were called for a medical emergency at about 1 a.m. Wednesday after one inmate assaulted another in the cell they shared.
Staff members performed CPR on the injured inmate and called Emergency Medical Services. EMS and the Honolulu Fire Department arrived and took over efforts to revive the inmate, but he was pronounced dead at about 1:50 a.m.
OCCC, the state’s largest jail, is holding about 925 prisoners.
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Tommy Johnson was unavailable for comment, but said in a written statement there are active investigations into Scotton’s death by the department as well as the Department of Law Enforcement and the Honolulu Police Department.
ACLU of Hawai‘i Policy Director Carrie Ann Shirota said in a written statement that “the uptick in suicides, assaults, and murders in our jails over the past few years warrants a systems-wide investigation.”
“ACLU of Hawai‘i urges swift action by DCR and the Honolulu Police Department for answers to this most recent tragedy,” the statement said. Corrections officials did not respond to a request for comment on the ACLU statement.
Staff members performed CPR on the injured inmate and called Emergency Medical Services. EMS and the Honolulu Fire Department arrived and took over efforts to revive the inmate, but he was pronounced dead at about 1:50 a.m.
OCCC, the state’s largest jail, is holding about 925 prisoners.
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Tommy Johnson was unavailable for comment, but said in a written statement there are active investigations into Scotton’s death by the department as well as the Department of Law Enforcement and the Honolulu Police Department.
ACLU of Hawai‘i Policy Director Carrie Ann Shirota said in a written statement that “the uptick in suicides, assaults, and murders in our jails over the past few years warrants a systems-wide investigation.”
“ACLU of Hawai‘i urges swift action by DCR and the Honolulu Police Department for answers to this most recent tragedy,” the statement said. Corrections officials did not respond to a request for comment on the ACLU statement.
Last August the ACLU publicly called for a federal investigation of violence at the privately run Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona after a murder of an inmate at that facility in May and a non-fatal stabbing there two months later.
Hawaiʻi currently holds about 900 prisoners at the Saguaro facility, which is operated by the company CoreCivic.
The Pinal County Medical Examiner concluded Anton Myklebust, 46, died of blunt force injuries and also had been strangled May 4. Another Hawaiʻi inmate, Daniel Kosi, 51, was stabbed repeatedly at Saguaro on July 27 but survived the attack.
Raita Fukusaku, 59, was also attacked and killed in a separate incident at Hālawa Correctional Facility on Oct. 14. He had been beaten and stabbed.
Full article can be found here: https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/02/aclu-cites-pattern-of-violence-after-m...