The first group of 60 minimum-security inmates are expected to arrive at Hawaii island’s Kulani Correctional Facility after it reopens this week, easing some of the crowding in the state’s prison system.
Eventually there will be an inmate population of 200 at the prison, about 20 miles southwest of Hilo.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie and other state officials will attend the Tuesday reopening of the minimum-security prison, which was closed in 2009 by Gov. Linda Lingle because of the state’s fiscal crisis. Lingle said the move was to save $2.8 million annually.
When Kulani closed, more than 90 employees were let go, and about 160 inmates were relocated.
The facility was turned over to the Hawaii National Guard for use as an educational training facility for high school dropouts.
To prepare for the return of inmates, the state had to spend $600,000 for repairs and renovations to the facility’s roof, interior, exterior and electrical system, and for kitchen and security equipment, according to an environmental assessment. The state spent $248,177 to conduct environmental impact studies on the area and assess the prison’s existing infrastructure.
Abercrombie allocated $2.5 million in operating funds for the current fiscal year, which ends Monday, and another $5.1 million in the new fiscal year. The prison will employ 76 people.
In his State of the State address, Abercrombie said the reopening of Kulani will restore needed jobs on the Big Island and return more than $5 million a year to Hawaii currently spent on Arizona correctional facilities.
Earlier this year state officials said nearly one-third of Hawaii’s 6,000 prison inmates are at Saguaro and Red Rock correctional centers in Arizona because of overcrowding. The Oahu Community Correctional Center was designed to house 600 inmates but now has 1,100 to 1,200, prison officials reported.
In 2009, Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi opposed the closing of Kulani because of its economic impact on prison employees, and vendors that provided food and other services to the prison.
State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai has said the annual operating cost to run the Kulani prison will be $5.9 million. The annual operating cost of the prison five years ago was $5.1 million.
Sakai said housing a prisoner at Kulani will cost about $82 a day compared with the $65 per-day cost of using Arizona facilities, but he cited the local economic impact and better programs for prisoners as reasons Kulani should reopen.
He said that because of its limited security, Kulani will not house all inmates returning from the mainland. Instead, its opening will free space in other state facilities for higher-custody-level inmates to return from mainland prisons.
On Thursday the National Guard held a blessing for a new $5.6 million barracks for its youth program for high school dropouts at its new Hilo facilities.
The new barracks are part of the Hawaii Youth ChallenNGe Academy, a boot camp-style educational program for high school dropouts, which moved to the Keaukaha Military Reservation.
The National Guard also renovated existing buildings at Keaukaha for the next class, which will begin July 29 with 100 cadets.
