New multistory prison
sought for Maui
WAILUKU >> State Public Safety Director John Peyton has asked legislators to consider building a multistory prison in Puunene to replace the crowded Maui Community Correctional Center in Wailuku.
Peyton estimated the cost of the new prison could range from $54 million to $59 million.
Peyton, speaking to state House Finance Committee members and Maui legislators Wednesday at the prison, said the multistory building would cost more to develop than expansion of the current prison. But a new prison would reduce operating expenses, including personnel costs, he said.
At the federal facility, he said, a corrections officer can observe 124 inmates.
Peyton said the multistory design would also help to segregate different categories of inmates by floor.
Maui Community Correctional Center was built in 1978 to house 24 inmates, and the state has been adding buildings to accommodate additional inmates.
The Maui Community Correctional Center, designed to hold 209 inmates, currently has a prison population of 329 inmates, acting Warden Alan Nouchi said.
Nouchi said overcrowding can create tension and fights.
State Sen. Shan Tsutsui, a member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the state definitely needed an expanded prison, but he does not know where the state would come up with the money to finance Peyton's request.
He said there were also other "pressing problems" on Maui, including improvements to Maui Memorial Medical Center and the long-term care facility at Kulamanu.
"While we're talking about overcrowding in prisons, we also have big overcrowding in the hospital," he said.
"We just need to be very careful before we decide that, yes, we need to spend $60 million."
Tsutsui (D, Central Maui) also raised questions about developing a 600-bed facility when Maui has 329 inmates.
He said he wants to make sure the facility serves inmates mainly from Maui County and does not begin to take in a substantial number of inmates from other counties.
"My big issue from what they seem to have in mind is, I don't know if you can put a building like that in a really rural setting," Tsutsui said. "I don't know if it would fit."
