Kauai warden
wins acclaim

His 'Lifetime Stand' program
has garnered national attention

By Tricia Moore
Star-Bulletin

WAILUA -- Neil Wagatsuma works 80-hour weeks and skips vacations because he has "faith in his fellow man" and a passionate belief that even the worst criminals can change if they want to.

He's the warden at Kauai Community Correctional Center and the creator of the "Lifetime Stand," a prison rehabilitation program that stresses work ethic, perseverance, discipline and personal responsibility.

It culminates with furloughed inmates "proclaiming" in emotional public ceremonies that they'll live the rest of their lives crime-free.

The program has garnered the attention of the American Corrections Association, which named Wagatsuma as one of "the best in the business."

Wagatsuma has a flair for drama and is sometimes humble, compassionate and autocratic in his mission to rehabilitate the criminals in his care.

"Criminals are the most selfish people in the world. They always blame others," Wagatsuma said. "I try to show them where they stand in life's bigger picture."

Inmates selected for the Lifetime Stand are the elite of the prison. They are 50 men and six women who are want to change their lives, Wagatsuma said.

They live in unguarded cabins on prison grounds, away from the 75 "selfish and uncommitted" others who spend their days locked inside the concrete facility.

Their daily regimen resembles military boot camp, down to the Army surplus fatigues they wear, daily marching drills and physical training.

Each morning they rise at 4:30 and spend half an hour reading the Bible or other inspirational material, praying or just thinking.

They spend their days farming, maintaining the facility, engaging in community service projects, and attending programs and therapeutic sessions that teach life skills.

"I feel sorry for them sometimes," Wagatsuma said. "It's one of the hardest things to do. It's only for those who are very serious."

The warden's hopes for criminals are often dashed.

"It takes 10 failures to get one success story," he says.

Bernard Corpuz, a former Maui police officer sentenced to 25 years for extortion and drug crimes, is one example. Incarcerated 13 years in five prisons throughout the state, Corpuz was a notorious ringleader in the prison underworld.

He was transferred to KCCC four years ago under protective custody after becoming a born-again Christian and "ratting" on corrupt inmates and prison staff.

Corpuz became a platoon leader in the Lifetime Stand.

But he was recently sent back into the module after assaulting another inmate.

Although some of Wagatsuma's methods are untried and controversial, they appear to work. Statewide recidivism -- the rate at which released inmates offend again -- is about 80 percent.

Although Wagatsuma's program hasn't been around long enough to establish significant data, he believes it eventually will show 20 percent recidivism or better. Out of 17 who completed the program in the last three years, four have reoffended, and three of those were from the first year, he said.

The warden is given virtually a free reign by his superiors in the Department of Public Safety. Director Keith Kaneshiro said results so far have shown the program to be successful.

"We have to look at all different types of programs. There's no way we can hold all the people that should be incarcerated," he said.

Kaneshiro said the program addresses not only the crime, but the criminal mentality.

"They're brought up in a criminal culture, they think like criminals. You've got to change a whole way of thinking."

Statewide, 4,055 inmates are housed in space built for 2,900, forcing prison officials to release inmates before they've served their minimum sentence.

Civil rights attorney Dan Foley, who's been critical of the state's criminal justice system, said Wagatsuma's initiative is "far too lacking" in the system.

The public's thirst for punishment often comes at the expense of rehabilitation and public safety, and ignores the causes of criminal behavior, he said.

"Is it really better in the long run for the community to build more prisons than build better schools?" he asked.

Gabrielle deGroot, managing editor of Corrections Today, the trade journal of the American Correctional Association, said Wagatsuma was one of two wardens selected for the "Best in the Business" award.

"We were impressed by the proclamations inmates gave."

Programs that "pull the community into the rehabilitation process have shown to be the most effective," she said.

Tasha Schaefer, 24, a Lifetime Stand proclaimer, was paroled in January after serving a year for terroristic threatening and keeping firearms.

"Deep into the drug world," Schaefer says she collected drug money for dealers. She started rebelling at age 13, after her parents got divorced.

Like all inmates, she began her sentence locked inside the modules. "For three months all I did was cry. I was just sitting in there doing nothing."

She got into trouble with the warden for breaking his rules and found herself in his office and him yelling at her. Tears streaming down her face, she blurted out, "I like change my life."

"I learned plenty from this program," she said. "I hope I can teach others." Now she visits the prison, attends counseling sessions and encourages other inmates to stick with the program.