Former inmates seek prison audit

Two former Hawaii prison inmates are urging lawmakers to audit the state prison system and to focus the inquiry on the use of long-term lockdowns and chemical irritants such as pepper spray on Hawaii inmates housed in a privately run prison on the mainland.

Poepoe Mika and DeMont Conner, who both served time in mainland prisons, also contend the prison system routinely violates a state law that requires that inmates held in prisons on the mainland be returned to Hawaii at least one year prior to their release or parole dates.

That law was passed in 2007 to try to ensure prisoners have access to programs or other support in Hawaii to prepare them before they are released into the community.

Mika said he was returned to Halawa Correctional Facility from the mainland just two weeks before he “maxed out” and was released March 21 after serving a 20-year sentence for robbery, kidnapping, auto theft and firearm offenses.

Lawmakers had been scheduled to meet today to consider Senate Bill 2047, which calls for an audit of portions of the prison system, but the House on Thursday discharged the members of a conference committee, signaling that lawmakers likely will not act on the bill.

A report by the Department of Public Safety in December indicates the system often does not comply with the requirement that inmates be returned to Hawaii a year before they are released.

According to the report, 348 inmates who were a year away from release were returned to Hawaii in 2017, but another 622 Hawaii prisoners who were within a year of their release dates were not returned.

The report explained that 233 of the inmates who weren’t returned had refused to participate in programs or were terminated from programs. Another 140 inmates were not returned to Hawaii because they had too many misconducts, and 70 others had escape histories within the past seven years that made them ineligible for minimum-custody status.

Another 59 refused parole or work furlough programs, opting instead to serve out their entire sentences. And 65 more were not returned to Hawaii as the law requires because there was not enough space in existing furlough programs, according to the report.

Mika, 48, claimed in an interview he was falsely accused of threatening a female corrections officer a month before he was supposed to return to Hawaii, and was beaten and placed in disciplinary segregation. That delayed his return to Hawaii by almost six months, he said, which meant prison operator CoreCivic was paid more money to house him.

A contractor who is supposed to monitor conditions at Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., on behalf of Hawaii returned his complaint letters to him unopened, Mika said. “She didn’t even care what was in there,” he said.

Hawaii was holding 1,459 men in mainland prisons as of the end of March, with almost all of those convicts held at the privately operated Saguaro Correctional Center. Hawaii spent more than $44.2 million to house those inmates in out-of-state prisons last year.

Conner, who served time at Saguaro in 2007, said pepper spray is abused in the prison segregation units, and said he was sprayed at point-blank range. He was released March 8, 2011.

“What it amounts to me was, like, torture. I know, I experienced it firsthand, all because I was a grievance writer. I wasn’t posing a threat to anybody,” said Conner, 53. “It’s the abuse of pepper spray. It’s used for retaliatory purposes; it’s not used for restraining purposes.”

SB 2047 would direct the Office of the Hawaii State Auditor to scrutinize the “policies, practices, health services, and administration of Saguaro Correctional Center” as well as those of three in-state correctional facilities. It also calls for a review of contracting and procurement practices by the department, and a review of inmate care.

Public Safety Director Nolan Espinda submitted written testimony strongly opposing the audit, and asked that lawmakers reject the bill “in lieu of other immediate prosecutorial and compliance oversight agency reviews.”

Espinda said in his testimony that the originators of the bill were alleging serious misconduct “deserving of criminal and administrative review immediately,” rather than an audit that could take a longer period of time. A spokeswoman for the department did not respond Thursday to a request for more information.