Gov. Josh Green’s administration is asking lawmakers to put up another $30 million to prepare for construction of a new jail on Oʻahu, and is also seeking increases in staffing and funding to help ease the transition of prison and jail inmates back into society.
The state has already spent nearly $25 million over the past decade to plan, design and find a contractor for a new jail to replace the run-down Oʻahu Community Correctional Center, but nothing has actually been built yet.
The latest official estimates are the new jail will end up costing $937 million, making it one of the most expensive public works projects in Hawaiʻi history. But critics say the new jail could easily end up costing $1 billion or more, and want the state to pause or halt planning for the project.
Tommy Johnson, director of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, declined a request for an interview, but said in a written statement the latest request to the Legislature for $30 million is needed to complete the planning and design of the project as well as to prepare the requests for proposals for the OCCC project.
The administration plans to solicit a contractor to finance and build the new jail on state land at Halawa. The state would then lease back the finished facility to house prisoners, and would operate it with state employees.
Johnson said last month his office also requested $250 million in construction funding for the Oʻahu jail project, but Green did not include that money in his proposed budget for the next two years.
Johnson has warned repeatedly the overcrowded conditions in the aging Oʻahu jail are so poor the U.S. Department of Justice may eventually intervene to force the state to make improvements.
Johnson also says each year the state delays construction will add $50 million to $80 million to the final costof the new jail.
Emphasis On Diversion Sought
The Hawaiʻi Correctional System Oversight Commission, an independent board created by the Legislature, heard extensive criticism of the planned a new jail during its Dec. 19 meeting, and instructed commission staff to draft a letter once again calling for a pause in the planning effort.
Commission members agreed at the meeting the existing facility must be replaced, but said they want the department to put more emphasis on diverting people away from jail and into mental health services and programs for the homeless.
Liam Chinn, coordinator of the Reimagining Public Safety in Hawaiʻi Coalition, told the commission the plan for a new 1,300-bed lockup is “wildly out of step” with a growing community consensus that more people should be diverted away from the correctional system and into treatment programs.
Most of the people stuck in jail today should not be there, Chinn said. He said 40% of the jail population in Hawaiʻi is homeless, and 60 percent of inmates are there because they cannot afford to post bail to get out.
He described the department’s plan as a “wrongheaded super-jail proposal,” and urged the commission to support a pause in the project. The state needs to develop community-based alternatives to jail, he said, but Hawaiʻi cannot afford to build that new system while also building a new $1 billion jail.
“This is a choice in front of us, and we cannot afford both,” Chinn said.
Carrie Ann Shirota, policy director with the ACLU of Hawaiʻi, warned the plans for the new jail are based on flawed jail population projections, and won’t address the “revolving door” of people who are jailed, released, and then jailed again for petty offenses.
“If we fail to stop the flow of people to OCCC through data-driven strategies, this new OCCC jail will fail, and DCR will be asking for more money from the next generation of lawmakers to build a bigger jail,” she said.
Opponents of the jail plan, including the ACLU of Hawaiʻi, have argued for years the state should instead invest in community-based programs such as drug treatment and mental health services to reduce the numbers of people who are jailed for minor crimes.
The oversight commission has repeatedly urged a pause in the planning for the new jail, citing similar concerns, but the commission is advisory. Three of its members are retired state judges, one is a retired longtime state corrections executive. The commission is led by Mark Patterson, who is the Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility administrator.
In its written reply to those arguments, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says it supports criminal justice reform, but “does not control justice reform nor the assignment of occupants to our facilities.”
“We have to move forward on this project today due to the current conditions of OCCC now,” the department said. “We are severely overcrowded, and we cannot move forward on a project that doesn’t address these obvious needs today.”
Helping Outbound Inmates
In addition to the request for money for the jail project, the Green administration is asking lawmakers for a $4 million-per-year budget increase to hire new case managers and other staff to help connect prisoners with community based services as they leave Hawaiʻi prisons and jails.
Last month Johnson described that as a “warm hand-off” for the ex-inmates to steer them into community mental health, drug treatment and other services to help them stay out of jail.
The administration is also seeking $100,000 in each of the next two fiscal years to allow the department’s Reentry Coordination office to handle requests for help from outgoing inmates who need documents such as birth certificates, state identification cards, proof of citizenship, and bus passes.
The Green administration is also requesting another $28.5 million to build a new health care unit within the Halawa Correctional Facility, which is the state’s largest prison. Lawmakers have already provided $22.5 million for that initiative, which will include mental health beds, suicide safety beds and regular infirmary beds.
The administration is also seeking $10 million to prepare a facilities master plan for the correctional system, which has been struggling for years to maintain aging and outdated jails and prisons. The last time the state opened a new prison or jail was when Halawa began operations in 1987.
In another request that illustrates that issue, the new proposed budget includes $20 million to repair deteriorating perimeter fencing at facilities across the state, including at Halawa and the Maui Community Correctional Center.
The full article can be found here: https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/12/green-proposes-spending-another-30-mil...ʻahu-jail/