Build new jail at quarantine site

Aging and inefficient in its operations, Oahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi houses more than 1,300 inmates in a facility originally designed for 628, but modified over the years to fit about 950.

Last week, nearly two years after he initiated the state’s effort to solicit proposals to replace OCCC, Gov. David Ige announced the tentative selection for a replacement facility site: the state Animal Quarantine Station grounds in Halawa Valley. The latest cost estimate is $525 million, which includes relocation of the quarantine station on the 25-acre property.

While some state lawmakers and constituents may balk at any capital improvement project upwards of a half-billion dollars, in this case, there is little choice but to push ahead with an effort to remedy deplorable conditions. Among four site options, the Department of Agriculture’s quarantine facility is the best pick.

For starters, construction would be less expensive than building at the three other sites: land adjacent to Halawa Correctional Facility, Mililani Technology Park‘s “Lot 17” and OCCC’s current 16-acre campus. Plus, the quarantine station property’s proximity to the Halawa facility would make it easier for the proposed new jail and the existing prison to share some services.

What’s more, an OCCC exit from its urban campus on Dillingham Boulevard would clear the way for potential transit-oriented development, as plans call for the elevated rail guideway to run down the middle of the boulevard. Surrounded by shops and nearby residential areas, the site is simply better suited for purposes such as affordable housing.

OCCC’s mid-1970s design consists of 19 modules, each of which has to be guarded by a separate team of correctional officers. By contrast, the medium-security wing at Halawa — the state’s newest facility, opened in 1987 — has just four modules. It takes about 100 more officers at OCCC to guard the same number of inmates as at Halawa. Such inefficiency adds up to a waste of taxpayer money in a state that has recently scrambled to adequately cool classrooms for schoolchildren and tend to homelessness problems.

Over the past four decades, Hawaii’s incarceration rate has soared — from nearly 400 inmates in 1977 to some 5,800 today.

Upon hitting capacity, the state has double-bunked cells, added beds to dorms without adding support space, and converted spaces normally used for inmate programs and services to other purposes, such as inmate housing. Also, since the mid-1990s, Hawaii has been contracting for beds at mainland facilities.

Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice asking it to investigate overcrowding and other complaints alleging inadequate basic services, asserting that conditions in most of the facilities amount to unconstitutional “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The ACLU and others persuasively argue that Hawaii should follow the lead of other states that are effectively reducing the behind-bars population by modernizing policies on bail, classification of crimes, sentencing, parole and probation. Last year, Hawaii’s Legislature took a step in that direction, approving a law that allows the release of some types of low-level nonviolent inmates from OCCC.

Here’s hoping that a Legislature-approved task force, led by Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice Michael Wilson, that’s now studying options for the islands can help prod additional strides, such as requiring enrollment in community-based programs over incarceration when possible.

Meanwhile, the state’s consultants on OCCC have produced an optimistic forecast in which the number of male detainees will drop from 1,271 today to 959 in 2026. The envisioned facility would include two buildings — one for pre-trial and convicted inmates; the other for “pre-release” inmates prepping to return to society.

A new jail to replace OCCC is a worthy long-term facility fix, but it must be accompanied by a strong-willed shift in the state’s take on corrections that stresses rehabilitation over punishment.