State public safety officials are moving to reopen Hawaii island’s Kulani Correctional Facility, which was shut down in 2009, with some 160 inmates scattered elsewhere.
The advantages of reopening the facility, shuttered by the Lingle administration, include 96 new jobs and other economic benefits to the island economy, officials say. But the move also means some prisoners can return from Oahu or two facilities in Arizona.
"The biggest benefit is, of course, they’re closer to family and their loved ones," said Ted Sakai, interim director of the Department of Public Safety.
Sakai said research shows "the more positive visitations, the more likely it is the inmate will be successful on parole."
"In Saguaro (an Arizona prison housing Hawaii inmates) only a handful of families were able to visit," he said. "Some had video visits."
The department released a draft environmental assessment Nov. 23 to reactivate the 280-acre, minimum-security prison by 2014. The department will hold public meetings on Hawaii island to discuss the report and to gather comments, due by Jan. 22.
High per-prisoner operating costs were cited in closing Kulani, but officials say reopening the facility makes sense for several reasons.
"It’s a step to bringing inmates home from the mainland without contributing to the overcrowding (in Hawaii prisons)," Sakai said. "It’s the right thing to do."
The prison in 2009 was turned over to the state Department of Defense for use as an at-risk youth program campus.
From September to November 2009 about 160 inmates were transferred to other Hawaii and mainland prisons, the environmental assessment said.
The department houses 6,000 inmates in Hawaii and on the mainland, but the number on the mainland continues to drop. As of Nov. 19, 1,561 Hawaii inmates were imprisoned in Arizona at two facilities: Saguaro and Red Rock Correctional Center.
"Bringing 200 guys home is really good, and I think the more we can empty out the prison in Arizona, the better," said Kat Bradey, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, a Hawaii-based advocacy group. "The talk had been they need millions of dollars to reopen. You didn’t need millions of dollars to put some kids up there."
Mountain View resident Cory Harden, who had opposed the closure, said, "It’s really wonderful news after the trauma the community went through and the way it was closed." The former prison "was healing the people, and it was also healing the land," she said, referring to the inmates’ work to protect native plant species by fencing out feral pigs.
Sakai said closing Kulani left Hawaii with only one minimum-security prison, forcing inmates to be held at high-level security prisons such as Halawa Correctional Facility on Oahu.
"It costs us more to do that," he said.
That also means inmates don’t get the right programs and proper environment to prepare them for release, including programs involving work with minimal supervision.
Those programs reduce the number of parolees who wind up back in prison, Sakai said.
"If we can lower this number, we can reduce overcrowding," he said.
Many community members had protested the shutdown and opposed the state Defense Department’s proposal for military training on the property.
The department ultimately withdrew its request regarding training, and the state Land Board approved the transfer of about 600 acres for a National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Academy campus in 2010.
The Public Safety department proposes to occupy Kulani soon after the academy moves out.
Hawaii National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony said the academy has some leads for a new campus and expects to relocate by mid-2014.
The cost of keeping 200 prisoners in Kulani will be $82 per person per day — down from the $139 per day that it cost in 2009.
That is considerably higher than the $75.05 a day at two prisons run by the Corrections Corp. of America in Arizona, public safety spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said.
But Sakai said the higher costs will be offset by the benefits to the community in the form of locally purchased food and supplies, as well as Hawaii income taxes paid by the restored employees.
Bob Lee, a former librarian at Kulani who now works at Hawaii Community Correctional Center, said he welcomes the decision.
"Kulani was like my second family," he said, and everyone went their separate ways after the closure. "I was crying in the car coming down from the mountain when I said goodbye to Kulani."
Susan Segawa, a former Kulani supervisor who worked closely with inmates, described Kulani as "a place of healing and rehabilitation," adding, "It was a great example of how the goodness of even criminals can come out when they regain their self-worth and self-esteem."
She added, "We kept raising the bar higher and higher, and before you know it, they were accomplishing a lot and earning high school diplomas and college certificates."
The inmates provided community service to federal, state, county and nonprofit agencies across the island, she said.
Susan De Vera, whose son was an inmate at Kulani Correctional Facility, said her grandchildren missed weekly visits with their father, who was transferred to an Arizona prison for two years. The family spent thousands of dollars on only a few visits to Arizona, she said.
"My family suffered," she said. "Being incarcerated is one thing, but being sent away for a good number of years is another thing. … (His children) missed him. Of course, they wrote letters. He called, but every call is a collect call. It was hard."
To view the draft Environmental Assessment, go to www.hawaii.gov/psd.
