Cayetano
gets lively reception
on Big Island
Both friends and foes of
By Gregg K. Kakesako
the proposed prison in Kau turn out
for a spirited meeting
Star-BulletinHILO -- Gov. Ben Cayetano has defended his proposal to build a medium-security prison here, saying, "The Big Island needs an economic shot in the arm."
"You need the jobs here," Cayetano last night told a sometimes jeering audience, "and that's why we are here tonight."
He warned them that "We nned to build a prison. The only question is where, and it's going to be the Big Island. "Change is coming," the governor added. "The question is how do we adapt to it."
Several times, the governor told a standing room only crowd of nearly 400 at the Seven Seas Luau Meeting House that the hearing was only the beginning.
The governor said he still plans to go to Kau -- the remote agricultural community that is larger than Oahu and which was his first choice as a prison site -- if it is picked as the site.
Cayetano told the Star-Bulletin that a decision could come as early as next month, and much of it would depend on what area residents want.
He cited a recent survey taken by the ILWU, whose members were left jobless when sugar went out of business several years ago.
Fred Galdones, ILWU Local 142 division director, said the union canvassed residents in Pahala, a community in Kau, beginning March 28.
"We concentrated in Pahala," Galdones said, "because that's the area that was being discussed."
He said that 57 percent of the nearly 300 Pahala residents surveyed favored a prison being built there.
"They felt a prison would not adversely impact their lifestyle," Galdones said. "And the benefits would outweigh any problems a prison might bring."
Cayetano and his staff were repeatedly interrupted by protesters during the first hour while they tried to explain the economic benefits of building a prison on the Big Island.
Protesters carried signs decrying the problems they believe a prison would bring, while supporters, many of them members of the Hawaii Island Alliance for the Future, see it as an economic stabilization issue.
During his presentation, state Public Safety Director Keith Kaneshiro said the 2,900-bed prison system is now 43 percent over capacity, holding nearly 4,200 inmates with an additional 600 incarcerated in Texas.
Kaneshiro also used last night's hearing to answer questions raised earlier this year during a five-hour Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Pahala on the Kau prison proposal.
On the matter of security, Kaneshiro said the proposed prison would use video surveillance equipment and double perimeter fencing, would minimize movement within the facility and would prohibit contact between inmates and visitors.
As for the problem of escapes, Kaneshiro said at Halawa Correctional Facility -- Hawaii's only medium-security prison -- there has been only one escape in 11 years.
He also said that once the Big Island prison is built, Halawa could house all of the state's maximum-security inmates.
Cayetano said he chose the Big Island as a prison site because it needed jobs, offered remote sites and has a lot of available land.
"I wanted to put it in a place that would maximize return and in a place that was economically depressed," the governor said.
But Cayetano told the audience that "this is very early in the process" and once a site is selected, he still plans to go to the affected community to listen to their concerns.
He repeated that if Kau is chosen, and the citizens reject his proposal, the prison would have to be built elsewhere.
Brad Mossman, deputy planning director, predicted that during the prison's construction phase, more than 3,000 jobs would be created, pumping $165 million into the island's economy.
Once construction is completed, Mossman estimated, nearly 700 jobs would be created in the areas of security, secretarial/clerical and health care professionals.
He said the prison's payroll would be nearly $50 million annually. An extra 1,200 jobs would be created in industries that support the prison, Mossman added.
However, after the meeting, Stephanie Tabbada, who has lived in Kau for the past 44 years, said she didn't hear anything new last night.
"I heard it all before," said Tabbada, who made a special trip to the state Capitol in February to testify against the Kau proposal. "We're going to keep on fighting."
Tabbada said that if Cayetano insists on naming Kau, she is willing to take her objections to court to fight him on issues dealing with land ownership, lack of adequate infrastructure, such as water, and the loss of historical sites and artifacts.
Jeff Melrose, president of the 750-member Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, said he was "very glad" Cayetano had come to the Big Island to provide information.
"Information is critical to making a good decision," said Melrose, who supports a Big Island prison.
Before last night's meeting, several hundred supporters and protesters lined both sides of Kalanikoa Street fronting the meeting hall, carrying signs and demonstrating.
Gov. Ben Cayetano wants to have a private developer build a 2,000- to 2,300-bed medium security prison and lease it back to the state. Two state parcels are being considered: Sites considered
Near Pahala: 1,422 acres of land one mile north of Pahala, Kau, mauka of Highway 11, adjacent to Kapalapa Ranch, about 60 miles south of Hilo.
