Editorial: Public Safety still a mess after re-appointing Espinda

The vote of confidence that legislators gave beleaguered state Prisons Director Nolan Espinda by re-appointing him has — no surprise — come back to bite them on the backside.

Espinda was reconfirmed in April, 17-8, despite the Senate’s own Public Safety Committee recommending against, questioning his ability to improve dire prison conditions. Espinda pledged to do better.

Now several months later, little has improved. In an informational hearing this week, legislators heard about worsening staff levels at Maui Community Correctional Center (MCCC), where a March riot caused over $5 million in damage. Of MCCC’s 167 guard positions, only 54 officers are showing up for work regularly — less than one-third of the needed workforce to keep conditions, and the public, safe. That’s plunged since May, when the department said 83 guards were on the job on a regular basis.

Recruiting has brought candidates who failed to pass muster. Mostly due to staff shortages, the Department of Public Safety in fiscal 2019 paid nearly $14 million in overtime statewide, about $3 million more than the previous year.

Granted, Espinda inherited many chronic problems such as understaffing, overcrowding and outdated facilities when he took the top job in 2015. Post-riot, MCCC has had first some basic improvements, such as fixing of faulty doors, installing of video cameras in modules, and fixing of phones (all were inoperable pre-riot). But beyond facilities, legislators pressed Espinda about plunging work morale due to a culture of intimidation from the top. Clearly, a turnaround in management style and better strategies are desperately needed, to defuse this public-safety powder keg.

Espinda said the final report into the MCCC riot would not be publicly released. That’s not good; even if redacted, the public deserves to know as much as possible. Ferreting out the bad, after all, is as important as adding in the good.