House budgets $200M for new Maui jail

The state House of Representatives has inserted $200 million in capital improvement funds into the 2017 fiscal year budget for a new Maui jail — a project that dates back to 2004.

Meanwhile, lawmakers appropriated about $60 million for the design and construction of a new Oahu Community Correctional Center, a fraction of the $489.3 million in funding that Gov. David Ige is seeking.

Both jails, as well as those on Hawaii island and Kauai, have long suffered from severe overcrowding, with inmates triple- or quadruple-celled. Nolan Espinda, director of the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the state corrections system, has warned that the conditions make the state vulnerable to lawsuits.

The budget, approved by the House on Wednesday, now goes to the Senate, which can make its own changes. The House and Senate will then debate the bill in conference committee, before sending it back to the governor in May. Ige has line item veto power, however, and can choose not to release certain funds.

The $200 million appropriation for the Maui jail was a surprise to the Department of Public Safety, which had only requested $15 million to make upgrades at the current facility in Wailuku.

“We are extremely appreciative of any and all help they are able to give towards remedying our overcrowded conditions at MCCC and other jails across the state,” Toni Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the department, said via email.

The state has spent close to $14 million on planning for a new Maui jail at a proposed site in Puunene, with contracts dating to 2004, according to documents provided by the Department of Accounting and General Services. Money was spent on land surveys, design, an economic impact analysis, injection well plans, community outreach, legislative briefings, travel costs, preparation of an environmental impact statement and more.

The new jail was supposed to open its doors in 2012, according to past news reports. But the project was delayed and in 2013 put on hold because money wasn’t appropriated for construc-1tion, according to DAGS.

House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-Nuuanu) said that the state and county need to work together to address infrastructure issues at the site in Puunene. Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa also wants the jail pushed back from the highway to reduce its visibility. Luke said officials should be able to solve those issues.

The appropriations for the Oahu and Maui jails signal a divergence in priorities between House lawmakers and Ige.

Espinda had told lawmakers earlier this year that it wasn’t clear if the Maui jail would move forward due to cross-jurisdictional issues.

Ige had made fast-tracking the relocation of OCCC, the state’s largest jail, from its current location in a busy residential and commercial section of Kalihi, a top priority this year.

Ige sponsored legislation that would appropriate $489.3 million in general obligation bonds to relocate the jail to the grounds of the existing Halawa Correctional Facility. The overall cost to the state, with interest, was pegged at $780 million. Ige had also hoped to exempt the project from Hawaii’s environmental review law, an idea lawmakers quickly killed.

Luke said that House members remain worried about the cost of the OCCC project.

“We are not comfortable with it right now,” she said, noting that the proposal is still in the “discussion phase.”