From 2012 to 2014, I was on a personal mission to end the nearly constant cancellations of visiting hours at the Oahu Community Correctional Center. I also was helped by this newspaper, which would print each week a notice if visits had been canceled — which, more often than not, they were.
The state Department of Public Safety (PSD) claimed it needed to cancel visits because too many adult correctional officers were out sick or on family leave. The worst attendance of the year was usually Super Bowl weekend. When the Ige administration took office, the governor replaced the PSD director. The overwhelming number of canceled visitations stopped as soon as the new director took office.
It has now come to my attention the visitation record at the prison in Halawa is even worse.
Not only are visits canceled due to lack of staff, but the infrequency of the official visitation schedule results in most inmates getting only one or two visits per month.
Studies on prisons show that more visitations mean less recidivism and fewer suicides. Changing this inhumane policy of infrequent visits would benefit the inmates, the state of Hawaii and all of its people.
Steven Katz
Kailua
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