Cost of confining
juveniles is a crimeDoes $444,444 a bed sound high to you, too?
By Peter CarlisleWHEN a child reaches out to a snarling dog and is bitten, the pain makes it unlikely that the child will repeat the mistake. The saying goes something like, "Once bitten, twice shy." So when your newspaper reported that the state had approved plans to spend $8 million for 18 beds for juvenile offenders, I began feeling a bit shy.
Let's talk about being once bitten. In 1989, the Legislature created the Office of Youth Services. OYS administers the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.
HYCF is where we put most of our serious and violent juvenile offenders. So if you are under the age of 18 and you are a murderer, rapist, robber, burglar, member of a car-theft ring, enjoy drive-by purse-snatching or are involved in a host of other criminal activities, HYCF is the place for you.
At the time OYS was created, there were 90 beds at HYCF.
In 1991, OYS developed a strategic plan to deal with serious and violent juvenile offenders. OYS told the Legislature that locked custody is overutilized in Hawaii. It also told the Legislature that, based on population predictions, the need for secure custody for juveniles would not dramatically increase over 15 years.
Therefore, the Legislature could be confident that it could replace the 90-bed facility with a 30-bed secure facility, which would meet Hawaii's needs for serious and violent juvenile offenders for the next 15 years.
Since 30 beds were supposed to be adequate until the year 2006, the Legislature approved the plan for a 30-bed facility. It was completed in 1995 at a cost of $13 million. That is about $433,333 per bed.
It is now 1997 and HYCF has a population of 90 juvenile offenders. The 30-bed facility is chronically overcrowded.
It is so bad that, oftentimes, when a Family Court judge sentences a serious or violent juvenile offender to HYCF, the law violator simply bounces out of the facility and back into the community, having done little or no time.
Yes, OYS's projections on population and the need for secure beds for violent juveniles missed the mark by just a pinch. Sort of like getting on a plane for San Francisco and landing in Mozambique.
Now there is a plan to deal with the current overcrowding at HYCF. It comes from the same 1991 OYS strategic plan that promised 30 beds would suffice until the year 2006.
We get 18 more beds. Ten will be part of an observation and assessment unit and the other eight will go to an all-girl transition group home.
The good news is that this will not cost as much as the $13 million, 30-bed facility. We can get these 18 beds for a "mere" $8 million. The bad news is that it translates to $444,444 per bed.
I also couldn't quite figure out why the construction costs per bed for serious, violent juvenile offenders easily exceeds the median value of a single-family house in Honolulu or San Francisco or anywhere else in the United States.
When I asked those in the "know" about my concerns, this is what I was told.
1) The plans have already been approved.
2) It took five years to get approval for the 18 beds so you better take what you can get now or you may end up with nothing.
3) Comparing the cost of housing for serious, violent juvenile offenders and the cost of housing for tax-paying citizens is like comparing apples and oranges.
If you think that $8 million for 18 beds for serious and violent juvenile offenders makes sense, you don't have to do anything. It is on the way.
But if you think, like me, that this isn't rocket-scientist thinking, remember that this project was approved by the Legislature. You might want to let them know how you feel.
>Peter Carlisle is prosecutor
of the City and County of Honolulu.