Lee Cataluna: Maybe this time a prison will be built

“For more than a decade, Hawaii political leaders and community groups have debated the subject of new prison facilities — where to build them, how to build them.”

That sentence is from a Honolulu Advertiser story published in December 1976. It could very well be the lead of a story written today, except the time frame is no longer “for more than a decade.” It’s now more than five decades.

The story was about the groundbreaking for the Oahu Community Correctional Center and how it was going to solve the prison overcrowding problem in Hawaii.

The prison overcrowding problem was never solved, through the administrations of six governors, through generations of legislators and academics, and the rise and fall of public outrage.

Last week, Gov. David Ige — two weeks after winning the Democratic primary — took a step toward building a new prison facility in Halawa by accepting the environmental impact statement on the target site in Halawa. If Ige manages to get a prison built during his administration, or even get the construction started in earnest, it will be something close to a miracle. It’s shocking how many plans, promises and false starts have come and gone over the years.

Maybe this is the first of many examples of lame-duck leadership we’ll be seeing from the governor now that his re-election is practically assured and he no longer has to worry about offending any constituency. Prisons are a miserable issue for any politician, and Hawaii prisons have an especially rancid history.

In 1981, when OCCC was still new, National Guard troops had to be called in to help with a massive shakedown for prison contraband that turned violent. A report later concluded that “grossly overcrowded” conditions contributed to the problems.

In 1984, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state over crowded conditions at OCCC.

In 1987, Halawa Medium Security Correctional Facility opened. It was designed to hold 496 inmates in single cells, but double-bunking began the day it opened.

In 1993, Public Safety Director George Sumner proposed that a major prison be built on the Big Island.

In 1994, newly elected Gov. Ben Cayetano said he wouldn’t sacrifice education or social service programs to build a new prison, and the next year, the first 300 Hawaii inmates were sent to out-of-state prisons.

In 1998, Cayetano proposed building a 2,300-bed prison on the Big Island near Kau, but dropped the idea when residents objected.

In 2002, a plan was discussed to build a high-rise prison in Halawa. That didn’t happen.

In 2003, Linda Lingle promised during her campaign for governor to build two new prisons. Those didn’t happen either, and Kulani Correctional Facility on Hawaii island was closed during her administration.

Credit Gov. Neil Abercrombie for reopening Kulani in 2014. That is the closest any governor since Ariyoshi has come to easing the overcrowding that makes prison that much more dangerous.

“Building a new correctional facility is one of my top priorities,” Ige said last week. There is much to be said about programs like drug treatment, education and support services to reduce recidivism and the prison population. But first, the state needs a new facility where people aren’t double- and triple- and quadruple-bunked.

Besides, Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s train is supposed to run right through that Dillingham property. Maybe now, the right people will have their right reasons for doing what has long been the right thing.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.