Hawaii’s once red-hot tourism-­based economy is in trouble because of the COVID-19 pandemic — and now is the right time to forge ahead with long-stalled plans to build a new jail on Oahu, in part, to further stimulate the construction side of Hawaii’s economy, according to Gov. David Ige and others.

Since at least 1964, none of the efforts to build a new site for the Oahu Community Correctional Center has gotten this far.

It’s proposed to be built on state land in Halawa at the current site of Hawaii’s Animal Quarantine Station, which would move its operations to a smaller footprint on the Ewa side of the 30-acre property to accommodate a new jail.

A report due out later this month is expected to detail the cost, size, funding options and number of misdemeanor detainees and other inmates who could be appropriately held at the new proposed OCCC.

A 2017 environmental impact statement projected the cost at $525 million. But whatever 2020 cost estimates come out of this month’s “business case analysis” by WT Partnership, Ige said, “clearly it’s a very expensive undertaking.”

At the same time, Ige said record low interest rates and a friendly bond market combine to provide “a clear opportunity to build a replacement facility.”

The Legislature, at this point, isn’t expected to be asked for any money or to approve any OCCC construction-related bills in the 2021 session, among all of the other demands lawmakers will face.

(In May the state Council on Revenues forecast a 7% drop in state tax collections, which would have left the state in a $2.3 billion budget hole. Last month the Council on Revenues made an even more dire forecast of an 11% drop in state tax revenues).

The first Oahu Prison was built in 1857 near the current Salvation Army on Nimitz Highway in Iwilei. In 1916 the prison was replaced by the Oahu Community Correctional Center, built on its current 16-acre site in Kalihi, bordered by Dillingham Boulevard and Puuhale Road. More structures were added in the 1950s and on to address overcrowding.

Overcrowding and calls for a new Oahu jail have only increased in the decades since, through multiple administrations.

This upcoming legislative session, Ige and others plan to keep lawmakers updated on the issue of pushing ahead with building a new jail on Oahu, while outdated Department of Public Safety jails in every county across the state experience similar problems.

If done right, Ige told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, a new OCCC — and the way it’s built, financed and designed for badly needed inmate programs — could serve as a template for future jail construction projects on Kauai, Maui and Hawaii island.

“Clearly this is an old facility built a long time ago that expanded in spurts,” Ige said. “It’s not a modern facility. It doesn’t have the kind of space we need. … All of the jails are overcrowded. They’re all old, (with inmates) double- and triple-­spaced. We’re under federal scrutiny all of the time because of the overcrowding.”

Beyond capacity

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered more urgency to do something about the current state of OCCC, which has seen outbreaks among both prisoners and staff. While inmates continue to appeal for early release, the pandemic also has refocused attention on OCCC’s perennial overcrowding.

On Sept. 29, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and the United Public Workers and Hawaii Government Employees Association unions jointly asked Hawaii leaders “to immediately remedy ongoing problems related to COVID-19 at our jails and prisons that led to a major coronavirus outbreak at Oahu Community Correctional Center.”

At that point, nearly 100 adult correctional officers and staff at the Kalihi facility had tested positive, along with 338 inmates.

OCCC, as with the state’s other jails, is intended to hold inmates awaiting trial or sentencing for misdemeanor crimes and those with up to two years or so left on their sentences.

During their time at OCCC, the Department of Public Safety would like to offer inmates a wide range of programs intended to better equip them for their inevitable release so they don’t revert to crime and return to jail.

But with a jail population historically above OCCC’s capacity, spaces intended for programs are being pressed into use for other purposes, including bed space, said Joe Earing, chief of the planning branch for the state Department of Accounting and General Services, which is responsible for DAGS-managed state buildings.

At OCCC, Earing said, “what space is available really isn’t conducive to learning. Basic literacy can’t be done. Basic life skills, learning how to balance a checkbook, religious services, programs that are very important, especially for the Native Hawaiian people, aren’t getting done. … People want to see more programs and rehabilitation.”

At the same time, over the past 15 years, Earing said, OCCC has undergone more than 30 repair and maintenance projects, including replacing its air conditioning chillers, hot water systems, updates to its security systems, improvements to its razor-wire perimeter, roof repairs, sewer improvements, grease trap replacements, in addition to adding modular trailers for critical programs such as mental health treatment.

“Does it pay to keep sinking more money into the facility or go with a new facility?” he said.

Or as state comptroller Curt Otaguro put it, because of overcrowding, “There is no place for families to interact. There are no places for rehabilitation, getting them (inmates) re-engaged so they can become better citizens.”

Like Ige and others, Earing said “construction is one of the few bright spots in our economy. It’s keeping people employed right now. The need is there. It’s not going to go away.”

OCCC is designed to hold 628 inmates. But it was allowed to increase its capacity to 954 over the years.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold early this year, OCCC housed 1,231 inmates in February, “well above the approved capacity of 954,” said DPS spokeswoman Toni Schwartz.

With court-approved early releases to curb the spread of the virus, OCCC had a population of 846 inmates last week.

The overall status of OCCC’s physical plant — and all of the related problems, including overcrowding — “has to be addressed,” Schwartz said. “We need a more modern facility (that) provides for a safe, humane, physical environment for staff and inmates.”

Projects pile up

If construction begins on a new OCCC and a new Aloha Stadium while the city’s troubled rail project also remains under construction, three major simultaneous public works projects would be unprecedented.

Planners are aware that public appetite for even one more large public works project might be missing following the troubles with the city’s rail project.

“It weighs heavy on everyone’s perspective that they don’t want to be the next HART (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation) with delays and cost overruns,” said Adam Shaw, co-founder and executive vice president of WT Partnership, a consultant group working on the new OCCC concept. “Nobody wants to be HART 2.0.”

Across the mainland, jails are typically funded locally and run by county sheriff’s departments.

But just like Hawaii’s public schools and the University of Hawaii system, the responsibility for each county’s jail is up to the state — along with any future construction costs.

So building a new OCCC always has competed with less controversial projects, such as construction of new schools, Ige said.

Building a new jail “doesn’t get full priority,” Ige said. “That’s always been a problem.”

One of the ways to pay for a new Oahu jail would be employing a so-called public-private partnership — or P3 — agreement. The concept was recently blamed for HART’s most recent problems, with the city pulling out of a P3 agreement on Sept. 25 to build the final 4.16 miles of rail to Ala Moana, Honolulu’s largest transportation hub.

But unlike the rail project that’s been built in phases, a P3 agreement would be simpler for a new OCCC at one location. A P3 agreement would be just one financing option, Shaw emphasized, and certainly not result in a “privatized” jail.

“The state will always own it,” Shaw said. “They would just pay someone to design it, build it, finance the construction and maintain the physical infrastructure. The state will always be responsible for what happens inside the building and caring for the detainees. That is the P3 template and one of the paths being considered.”

A private partner would be “a lot more nimble,” Ige said. “They could design a building that would be more flexible to meet our needs.”

‘Ashamed and sad’

Public Safety officials declined a request from the Star-Advertiser for access into OCCC, citing COVID-19 restrictions.

But Bettina Mehnert — president and CEO of Architects Hawaii who is working with DAGS on its future OCCC concept — said her tour of the Kalihi jail changed her life.

Three years ago, Mehnert joined Public Safety officials on a whirlwind trip to five correctional institutions in Canada and the mainland, where they reviewed modern facilities that were “new, incredibly thoughtful and well thought out in every single aspect of the facility.”

They met with inmates on trial for murder as well as with the kitchen staff. The experience “made me passionate about this project,” Mehnert said. “As an architect, it made me see how a facility has an impact on the people that are kept there, on the people who work there.”

After returning to Hawaii, she then toured OCCC and came away “ashamed and sad at the same time.”

“If we care as a society about our seniors, if we care about our kids in school, if we care about the homeless, if we care about all of these different people, then we need to care about those who made a mistake who are incarcerated,” Mehnert said.

She was particularly appalled by her visit to OCCC’s notorious, open-space, multilevel housing module known as “The Thunderdome” that was so overcrowded Mehnert had to step over inmates.

“It struck me like something out of a movie,” she said. “It’s open and inmates come to the edge to see who’s coming into the ground floor. Bathroom fixtures weren’t in the walls, the tiles had come off and I had to step over people. I want to say it was horrific, but sad is the real word. There’s something that’s just not right. But it’s not (DPS’s) fault. They’re dealing with a facility that is full far beyond what it’s designed for. It’s outdated and simply not meeting the needs of the inmates and the staff.”

Oahu Community Correctional Center

Oahu’s jail is for inmates awaiting trial or sentencing for misdemeanor crimes and those with about two years left on their sentences. The current site opened in 1916, expanded in the 1950s and was first proposed to close in 1964.

>> What: A new proposed OCCC would allow current location in Kalihi to close and construction of a modern facility with room for programs to prepare inmates for return to society.

>> Where: The jail is currently located on 16 acres. A new OCCC would be built on 30 acres in Halawa at the site of the state’s Animal Quarantine Station.

>> Why: Concerns remain over inadequate buildings, lack of inmate programs, overcrowding and the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: State Department of Public Safety, Honolulu Star-Advertiser research