The state Department of Public Safety is looking to bring back to Hawaii all of its inmates on the mainland by reducing the in-state prison population by about 1,100 and building about 900 new spaces for them on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island.
Department officials laid out the plans at a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs Committee.
Public Safety Director Jodie Maesaka-Hirata told the committee that under a plan called the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, the department could save $19.5 million in fiscal year 2014, $26.5 million in 2015 and reduce the prison population.
Maesaka-Hirata said the department, which houses 6,000 inmates in Hawaii and on the mainland, is also considering three projects to increase space. The projects include expanding Waiawa Correctional Facility, building a new prison in Puunene, Maui, and either reopening Kulani Correctional Center or building a new facility on Hawaii island.
Hawaii has 1,738 inmates at two prisons in Arizona and has been trying to bring back the prisoners as promised by Gov. Neil Abercrombie in December 2010, following a lawsuit alleging mistreatment by guards at one of the Arizona facilities.
Maesaka-Hirata said about $29 million is being requested to improve the electrical system and expand the wastewater system at the Waiawa facility, which houses 330 inmates. The improvements will allow the state to expand the facility to handle 200 more inmates by 2017. The prison could eventually reach a maximum capacity of 750 inmates.
On Maui the Maui Regional Public Safety Complex will eventually replace the Maui Community Correctional Center and initially have space for 608 inmates when it is opened in 2016, Maesaka-Hirata said. It could possibly be expanded to house 843.
She said on Hawaii island, the state is conducting a study to determine whether to reopen Kulani, which previously had a capacity of 160, or build a new facility on state land, called Field 33, about seven miles away from Kulani and at a lower elevation.
Martha Torney, deputy director for administrations at the department, said after the hearing that the state is trying to reduce the prison population with policies before the Legislature that will keep prisoners from re-offending and shorten their prison stays.
Prison admissions can be lowered by providing programs, such as job training, to reduce the probability of prisoners re-offending and by releasing them into well-supervised parole or probation, she said.
The length of imprisonment can be shortened by providing programs that inmates need — such as sex offender or substance abuse treatment — and getting them out on parole faster, instead of making them wait in prison for an opening in a treatment program, she said.
"This is not going to be a wholesale release of inmates," Torney said. "This is going to be a very measured manner with proper supervision and proper programming."
State Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the committee, said he was pleased with the department’s update.
"Right now this appears workable," he said. "It’s going to take a few years, but it looks like it’s certainly something that can be accomplished."
