State corrections officials plan to install surveillance cameras in the security holding cell area at Oahu Community Correctional Center where a detainee allegedly killed another earlier this year.
Corrections officers also are staggering the arrival of vans carrying inmates to Circuit Court to prevent the kind of escape that involved a man accused of murder.
State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai, speaking before a state Senate committee Thursday, described the two actions as among a number of improvements within the state corrections system.
"There’s been many lessons learned," Sakai said.
He assured lawmakers that steps were being taken to ensure past mistakes aren’t repeated.
But he said his department is facing problems in trying to decide where to put inmates at Oahu Community Correctional Center, a facility designed to hold a little more than 600 inmates but now housing about 1,200 detainees.
"Because of the situation, it’s a difficult decision for the staff to make," Sakai told members of the Senate Public Safety, Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee.
The death of 76-year-old inmate Cyrl Chung, allegedly at the hands of his cellmate, Joseph Tui Jr., was described by a corrections official as a "very rare" incident at the prison but one that nevertheless raised questions about security.
"Mr. Chung was sentenced to prison but not to die," said state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria (D, Kakaako-McCully-Waikiki).
Both Chung and Tui, 36, were placed in a security holding cell area described by corrections officials as a "jail in a jail," where inmates guilty of misconduct were placed away from the regular prisoner population.
Tui was in custody on a harassment charge from a July arrest. He was in the security cell holding area for threatening a staff member.
Chung, described as career criminal, was awaiting trial on charges of second-degree robbery at Walmart on Keeaumoku Street on Feb. 15, 2011. He was in the holding cell for cigarette possession.
Upon the advice of state Deputy Attorney General Diane Taira, Sakai declined to respond to lawmakers’ questions about how long Chung and Tui had been together in the same cell and whether Tui had a recent history of violence. Taira said the state did not want to jeopardize the prosecution.
Sakai said corrections officers check the holding cells at least every 30 minutes and that money has been authorized to install observation cameras in the cell area. But the cameras won’t looking into the cells themselves, he conceded.
Sakai said state corrections officials are also taking steps to prevent a recurrence of an escape outside Circuit Court on Feb. 20, when inmate Teddy Munet fled from a transport van driveway. Munet was recaptured 12 hours later several blocks from the court.
Pending the outcome of an internal investigation, two adult corrections officers have been reassigned to administrative tasks and are no longer involved in transporting inmates, Sakai said.
Sakai said Munet and other inmates in the van should have been wearing leg shackles. He said a department directive was issued the next day emphasizing the requirement.
Sakai said vans dropping inmates off at Oahu Circuit Court have been put on a staggered schedule, and a basement gate is closed to secure the area.
He said the vans carrying the inmates did not have radios to communicate with authorities about the escape, and the department should have the radios in two to three weeks.
"We’re beefing up our communications," he said.
Sakai acknowledged that some corrections officers might not be in good physical shape, and said the department is looking at requiring an annual physical and also an agility test.
