Four women who want to marry men who are state prison inmates are suing state Public Safety Director Jodie Maesaka-Hirata and two other Public Safety officials for repeatedly denying their fiances’ marriage applications.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, claims the state officials are violating the women’s constitutional right to due process by not providing them justifiable reasons for denying the requests to marry.
The suit names as the other defendants DPS mainland branch coordinator Shari Kimoto and DPS contract monitor Jeanette Baltero in their individual and official capacities. It does not name the state as a defendant. The plaintiffs are Lenora Santos, Junell Faith Aliviado, Jamiquia Glass and Margaret Amina. Their fiances are Hawaii men incarcerated at Saguaro Correctional Facility in Arizona.
“The state has no interest in regulating who can and cannot marry,” said Daniel Gluck, ACLU senior staff attorney.
Kimoto routinely rejected the inmates’ applications to marry with a letter telling them they are incapable of providing the necessary emotional, financial and physical support that every marriage needs to succeed, and that their inability to communicate effectively face to face with their fiancees will be detrimental to any future reintegration efforts, the lawsuit says.
Gluck said the ACLU thought the problem was solved after telling Public Safety officials in December 2010 that denying inmates their right to marry simply because they are prison inmates is unconstitutional.
The department adopted a new policy last June allowing wardens to recommend against approving an inmate’s marriage application if the marriage presents a threat to the security or good government of the institution, or to the protection of the public.
Since then Kimoto has denied requests for that reason, according to the lawsuit.
In one case Kimoto denied a marriage request because fiance, who has 10 years left on his sentence, was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor and that Aliviado has a 16-year-old child. Kimoto rejected Glass’ fiance’s request because Glass has a criminal record, the lawsuit says.
“The policy itself is not the problem — it is state officials who think they can judge whether or not a marriage is going to be successful,” Gluck said.
A Public Safety spokeswoman said department officials would reserve comment until they have had time to review the lawsuit with legal counsel.
