Hawaii’s only work furlough program for female inmates, which faces financial extinction after today, received a badly needed boost of support when House Speaker Scott Saiki announced that the House Finance Committee is expected to approve $450,045 to keep the program alive.

If approved, the plan would move to the Senate.

Saiki said continuing the state’s share to keep the YWCA Fernhurst Women’s Program running to help female prisoners get jobs and prepare for life outside of state custody “is a no-brainer.”

“This is a highly effective program that helps women transition back into society,” Saiki said. “The alternative to closing Fernhurst, which is to incarcerate women, is completely unacceptable.”

Saiki on Monday repeated data from the state Department of Public Safety that it costs an average of $198 per day to house an inmate versus the $120 daily cost to furlough female inmates from all islands and help them reboot their lives.

Public safety officials said in an email that they welcomed any efforts by Saiki to find funding to continue the program in the face of “an unprecedented budget cut of $17.9 million … through SB 126. We agree that community-based furlough programs, such as the one offered by YWCA Fernhurst, is an effective program that helps women transition back into society. Unfortunately, a budget cut as deep as $17.9 million will force PSD to defer many important inmate services and programs in order to prioritize funding to address the constitutionally mandated basic needs of inmates (medical, food, facility maintenance) and staffing of essential security posts. Every penny Speaker Saiki and his colleagues are able to restore to our budget will help us provide for critical services and treatment programs during these unprecedented economic times.”

After public safety officials notified the program in mid-June of their intention not to renew its contract once the fiscal year ends today, Noriko Namiki, CEO of the Oahu YWCA, said a van collected six of the 11 female inmates enrolled at the time and took them to be incarcerated in the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua, where DPS said it runs similar programs.

One of the 11 inmates was released on parole, and four were granted early graduation into a separate furlough program that the YWCA runs in another part of its Makiki building at no cost to DPS. The graduate program’s funding comes in part through a city grant-in-aid and fees that the women pay, Namiki said.

Despite the partial shutdown of Hawaii’s economy due to COVID-19, all four women in the graduate program currently have jobs in restaurants and retail businesses, Namiki said, and return each night to sleep at the Makiki YWCA.

They already received training at the Richards Street YWCA, where they learn how to write resumes and dress, are coached for job interviews, and receive ongoing advice on “job retention training,” Namiki said.

The four current women in the graduate program were able to get jobs in a tight job market “because we help them,” she said. “And we know many of the employers.”

Three of the four inmates who were returned to WCCC already had jobs.

“Everybody was moving forward,” Namiki said.

The YWCA took over the program five years ago from another nonprofit.

In the past five years, about 200 women from all islands — including Molokai — have come through the program, which has an 80% success rate.

All of the participants are low-level, nonviolent offenders motivated to start their lives over, Namiki said.