Lawyer ordered
to list sourcesNames are sought in
a report on the youth
correctional facility
The state has subpoenaed an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer to find out his sources for a report that accused Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility guards of mistreating inmates.
The state Labor Relations Board subpoena requires Brent White, legal director at the ACLU's Hawaii's office, to appear before the board Oct. 8 with all the documents he used to write his critical report, which prompted a major state investigation.
The United Public Workers union, which represents many of the facility's employees, alleges that the report violated labor laws and asked the Labor Relations Board to issue a subpoena yesterday.
Deputy Attorney General Dan Morris, who is representing the Attorney General's Office, said the board doesn't have jurisdiction to "limit the attorney general's or ACLU's authority to investigate misconduct at the facility.
"For the UPW to try and chill or stop either of those organizations from doing their job is against public policy," he said.
Under the UPW's request, the names of the youth at the center -- many of whom provided potentially damaging statements against employees at the facility -- would be revealed, White said.
"These children only talked to us when they were assured that we would protect them and protect what they told us," he said.
He said making the names available to the union also could violate attorney-client privileges.
"The ACLU has every right to conduct an investigation in a public facility," he said.
White said he plans to file for a motion to quash the subpoena, a move that the board would consider in a meeting on Oct. 7.
UPW lawyer Herbert Takahashi did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday. But in documents filed with the board, Takahashi said ACLU "committed prohibited (labor) practices" when it investigated the facility "based solely on hearsay accounts of alleged criminal and administrative misconduct."
The investigation into the facility began after the ACLU spoke to anonymous callers who alleged inmates were being ill-treated at the center. The state was notified of the calls but did not find any wrongdoing at the facility.
A number of state agencies are named in the case before the board because, after the state's investigation, officials gave ACLU the go-ahead to look into conditions and practices at the facility.
Less than two weeks after the report was released in mid-August, Gov. Linda Lingle replaced top management at the facility and ordered a follow-up investigation into the report's allegations. The Attorney General's Office also launched a criminal investigation into practices at the youth corrections facility in Kailua.
White's 37-page report blasted the facility for alleged abusive behavior of its guards, and said the center "does not seem to have any functioning system of positive incentives ... and instead relies almost solely on discipline such as room confinement and physical force."
The report also alleged that the facility is overcrowded, does not provide inmates with adequate medical services, and that girls "suffer from a lack of privacy when getting dressed, sleeping and using the bathroom."
White has said the allegations in the report come from ACLU interviews with 70 of the facility's wards and from observations during two visits this summer.
White recently announced he would leave his post at ACLU on Oct. 1 for a teaching position in Japan.
