Prisons urged to find new approach to visitation

Smartphone use, video conferencing and hiring part-time corrections officers should be considered to ease staff shortages that have caused a rise in canceled visitation days at state prisons, a state senator said Wednesday.

Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee, also suggested moving visitation days from weekends to a weekday.

Visits were canceled Sunday, Father’s Day, at the Women’s Community Correctional Center, marking the 15th time in 16 weeks that staff shortages prompted cancellation at a state correctional facility. Visitation also was canceled on Mother’s Day.

"Many people are concerned about the problem and are working on it," Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) said after holding an informational briefing with public safety officials at the state Capitol. "Unfortunately, there’s not a quick, easy solution. There are multiple partners and stakeholders involved and we have to work with them.

"I would’ve liked to have seen a desire to think a little more out of the box for some of the suggestions that may not cost a lot of money but just might entail a little more planning and preparation — for example, moving the day of the family visits from a weekend to a weekday — even if it’s just as a trial basis or a pilot."

Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said strict staffing and generous sick leave policies combined with out-of-date facilities and a need for more special guard duties, such as inmate suicide watch, have contributed to the recent rise in cancellation of visits.

Oahu Community Correctional Center requires up to six officers to oversee family visits, which attract 80 to 100 people on weekends and require the use of a specific module of the prison. As many as four officers are needed to oversee visitation at Hawaii Community Correctional Center in Hilo.

"These facilities were designed for a different kind of population," Sakai told lawmakers. "We’ve simply outgrown them."

Visitation at the women’s facility requires female guards, he added, and any absence of female guards results in cancellation there. On Mother’s Day, Sakai said prison officials anticipated a spike in absences and held a special family visitation on the preceding Saturday.

Sakai said an attendance policy is in place, but sick leave and strict staffing measures, such as the posting of schedules 12 weeks in advance, have been collectively bargained and require union approval. New policies are being discussed and will be brought to the union once finalized, he added.

He also added that other means of noncontact communication, such as video conferencing or smartphones, need to be examined further because additional staff would be needed.