Cost of mainland detention
brings inmate back to isles

Kailua prison officials say that
the threat of retaliation is gone

A Hawaii inmate who was serving a life prison sentence in a federal prison on the mainland is back in the state women's prison in Kailua where she murdered a fellow inmate 15 years ago.

Catherine Samuel: She was convicted of murdering another inmate, a former lover, in 1989

The state brought Catherine Samuel back because it cost more than $20,000 per year to keep her at the mainland prison and because the possibility for retaliation is gone, said Francis Sequeira, acting warden.

Samuel, 64, returned to the Women's Community Correctional Center on July 13, Sequeira said. She had been at Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif.

Samuel fatally stabbed Agnes Spear, her former girlfriend, at WCCC on New Year's Eve 1989. Because Samuel was imprisoned at the time, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to a mandatory life prison term without the possibility of parole.

The state sent Samuel to California as a precaution against possible retaliation by other inmates, but the women who were in WCCC during the murder are no longer there, Sequeira said.

Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Takata, who prosecuted the case, does not believe Samuel poses a threat to other inmates because the murder was a crime of passion. "I don't think she poses an unreasonable risk," he said.

But as a precaution, Samuel is in protective custody until prison officials decide if she can be integrated into the general prison population. That means Samuel has no contact with other inmates and is in her cell 23 hours per day. She is allowed one hour for recreation and exercise.

The state is studying other housing options for Samuel and other Hawaii female inmates because it is running out of space. Sequeira said WCCC is designed to hold 268 inmates but has a population of about 300. The state also has female inmates in a privately run prison in Colorado, but it is full, Sequeira said.

Samuel was serving time for theft and drug promotion when she stabbed Spear.

The case gained notoriety not only because of the circumstances of the murder, but also because Spear was a plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit that forced the state to improve the living conditions for inmates at WCCC and Oahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi.