Gov. David Ige is pushing forward on plans to relocate Oahu’s overcrowded jail in Kalihi to Halawa Valley, inserting $5 million into his proposed budget for fiscal year 2020 for studying financing options for the facility, which is estimated to cost about $525 million.

But legislative leaders are questioning whether it makes sense to spend money on a study at this time when there’s no clear vision of how big the facility should be and what it should look like.

There also are questions about the $5 million cost of the study. By comparison, for example, a recent report by Ernst & Young Infrastructure Advisors on public-private partnership options for building out the last four miles of the Honolulu rail project cost only $325,000, according to the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.

Officials with the governor’s office, Department of Public Safety, which oversees the state’s corrections system, and the Department of Accounting and General Services, which is helping manage the project, either couldn’t say or didn’t respond to questions about the study’s cost and whether it would be contracted out or handled by Architects Hawaii, which was awarded an initial $5 million contract in 2016 to work on project planning.

“What we are trying to do, as far as the governor’s office, is to find out what are the best financing options to build this facility, and I think it is critical in light of the financial condition of the state,” said Ford Fuchigami, Ige’s administrative director. He said the study would consider options such as a public-private partnership or bringing in a private company to build the jail and then having the state lease it back.

Fuchigami said he didn’t know the specifics of what the proposed study would cover and referred further questions to DAGS.

DAGS spokeswoman Cathy Yasuda said she was trying to track down information about Ige’s $5 million request and was checking with the different agencies involved, including DAGS own Public Works Division and the Department of Public Safety. Adding to the complexity in tracking down the information, she said, is that DAGS was not aware of the budget request.

“We weren’t consulted because it came from Public Safety. It’s not part of our budget. We worked on our budget and we submitted it to the governor, but we didn’t have access to another division or another department’s budget,” she said.

Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Toni Schwartz didn’t respond to the Star-Advertiser’s questions about why the study is expected to cost $5 million or if the study would be put out to bid. She said Public Safety Director Nolan Espinda was not available for an interview.

Schwartz did say the project is expected to move into the design phase in 2019 if design funding is available.

“If all goes according to plan, we anticipate beginning the construction phase in 2021 and opening doors in 2024,” she said by email.

Jail reform efforts

The Oahu Community Correctional Center has long suffered from overcrowding and poor conditions, and Ige has made relocating the facility a priority of his administration. In 2016, he introduced a plan he hoped would expedite the move, asking the Legislature to release $489.3 million in general obligation bonds for use by developers. He also wanted authorization to negotiate directly with developers and to exempt the project, which he planned to site near Halawa Correctional Facility, from the environmental review process.

The Legislature rejected Ige’s proposals and instead told him to assess other potential sites and report back on anticipated costs, which the administration has since done. An environmental impact statement for the new jail was completed and accepted by the administration in August.

A major task force convened by the Legislature to study prison and jail reforms also urged the administration to slow down the planning process last year, arguing it failed to take into account strategies and policies for diverting low-level offenders and the mentally ill, and other means of reducing the jail population.

An interim report by the task force noted a much smaller jail would “save hundreds of millions in capital costs, millions more in annual operating costs, and would produce better outcomes such as a lower recidivism rate and a smaller prison population (which would save additional millions).” A final report to the Legislature is due this month.

The current plan for a new Oahu jail envisions housing about 1,335 inmates.

House Finance Chairwoman Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Makiki-Nuuanu) said it didn’t make sense to move forward on studying financing options for a jail when it wasn’t clear how big it should be, which would affect its price tag.

She also questioned why such a study was needed in the first place.

“It’s not as if you need a $5 million study to figure out what are the options out there,” she said. “Why don’t you just send out a (request for proposals) and have the private sector tell us what they are thinking … .”

Rep. Gregg Takayama (D-Pearl City), chairman of the House Public Safety Committee, said more discussion is needed on the size of the jail and general design.

“First of all, I support the need for rebuilding OCCC and I support the location that has been chosen and approved in Halawa Valley. But what I do not want to do is simply replicate what we have already done in the past and just build a duplicate correctional facility like the others we have,” Takayama said.

In particular, he wants the new jail to include a drug rehabilitation component that can house 250 to 300 inmates.

Both Ige and Public Safety officials said they would take into consideration the task force recommendations and work closely with the Legislature as they continue the planning process for the new jail.

Ige said that if it looks like the facility needs to be scaled back, his administration would “certainly consider it.”

“The important thing is that the environmental work has been done and it discloses the maximum anticipated impacts,” Ige said in a statement. “The ultimate objective is to solicit proposals from qualified bidders for design/build/finance options for us to consider.”