Maui proposal takes back seat to Oahu jail relocation

Plans to relocate Maui’s overcrowded jail to a larger facility in Puunene have fallen by the wayside as Gov. David Ige aggressively moves forward on plans to relocate Oahu’s largest jail to the grounds of the existing Halawa Correctional Facility.

Since 2011 the state has spent close to $14 million on consultants and design and engineering services to relocate the Maui Community Correctional Center from a residential area in Wailuku to land owned by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

But Hawaii’s director of public safety, Nolan Espinda, told lawmakers Thursday that plans to relocate the jail have been scuttled, at least for now. He said the Ige administration has not released an additional $1.5 million that the Legislature had approved for planning costs.

“The reality is, with its cross-jurisdictional issues and the land being controlled with no infrastructure, and less than complete and total support from the county, it is a very difficult project to push forward to actual progress,” Espinda told lawmakers during a joint informational briefing before the House Public Safety Committee and Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee.

The hearing was called to discuss legislation that Ige put forward this week to expedite relocation of the Oahu Community Correctional Center — a project that is expected to cost about $489.3 million. Both the Maui and Oahu jails are severely overcrowded, with inmates sleeping on the floor in some cells.

“Right now, with other priorities this year — this is very difficult for me to say — I cannot see requesting that we spend the $1.5 million above the $14 million, knowing in my heart that neither would a picket be put in the ground and neither would an additional cell be built with that money,” said Espinda.

Sen. Rosalyn Baker said she was disappointed in the administration’s position.

“I think it is a sad commentary for the administration that talks about working collaboratively. We continue to develop things in silos,” said Baker, adding that she thought MCCC is “a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

The Maui jail was designed to hold 209 inmates but has been reconfigured to house 301 people. As of the end of December, it had 463 inmates.

“You are going to jump from Maui, which has 154 percent capacity, to something on Oahu,” she said. “I don’t know if that is going to sit really well with my constituents on Maui.”

Espinda said Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui, who lives on Maui, is working to revive the project, but Ige’s priority is OCCC.

Rod Antone, a spokesman for Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa, said the mayor has always supported moving the jail. He said his office receives calls from inmates and their families complaining about the overcrowded conditions.

Asked whether the mayor was disappointed that the Maui jail project has stalled, Antone said that “there are are a lot of things the mayor would like to see the state follow up on.”

Antone said that he thought the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands might have opposed the project, wanting to use the property for something else. Paula Aila, a spokeswoman for the department, did not respond to a request to comment.

Meanwhile, Ige’s plan to expedite the relocation of OCCC received cautious support from lawmakers.

In anticipation of putting the OCCC project out to bid, Ige has proposed legislation that would allow developers to tap $489.3 million in general obligation bonds. Senate Bill 2917 would also allow the governor to negotiate directly with developers and exempt the project from Hawaii’s environmental review process.

The measure also requires the public safety department to develop a package of benefits for the neighboring Halawa community that could include infrastructure improvements, job training programs, improvements to schools and health care facilities, and unspecified social programs in exchange for hosting the new jail.

“What this enabling legislation allows us to do, which we could not do in the past, is entertain a wide variety of options,” Espinda told reporters after the hearing. “What we hope, of course, is that this is going to bring in multiple bidders with new and proven ideas that we can entertain, review and hopefully enter into an agreement through the Governor’s Office that is in the best interest of the taxpayers of Hawaii.”

Developers can propose using the general obligation bonds or other financing tools.

Lawmakers applauded the department’s efforts to move OCCC, which at of the end of December housed nearly double the number of inmates for which it was designed. However, some legislators questioned how the administration had come up with the $489.3 million estimate, wanted a more precise breakdown of costs, and raised concerns that bypassing Hawaii’s environmental review process could spark drawn-out litigation.

The overall cost of the project to the state, if financed by general obligation bonds, is estimated to be about $780 million, said Finance Director Wes Machida. This includes a little under $300 million in projected interest costs over 20 years.