Kaneshiro says he may have no
choice without more funding

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

State Public Safety Director Keith Kaneshiro says that unless he gets more money to alleviate the state's prison crowding, he may have no other choice than to release inmates.

That troubles state Rep. Nestor Garcia, chairman of the House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee. "I don't want to see people let out into the community before their time," said the Waipahu Democrat.

But Kaneshiro said yesterday that his message isn't new.

"I have been saying that for years now, but no one seems to be listening.

"Our prison overcrowding situation has reached a crisis. There are now 3,900 inmates in our prisons and we only have an operational capacity of 2,700.

"By the end of the year, we will reach 4,000. How much more urgent can we get?"

Kaneshiro said he has asked his wardens to provide him with lists of inmates who could be eligible for early release if the need arises.

Kaneshiro said he has already spent the only money allocated this year to relieve the overcrowding problem: $5 million to send another 300 inmates to Texas in July.

"I have to wait until July 1 (1998) before I can transfer another 300 inmates to the mainland.

"The problem is money," said the former Honolulu prosecutor.

The state is paying the Bobby Ross Group nearly $5 million -- or about $16,000 per prisoner per year -- to house the nearly 300 inmates in Texas, compared to spending $28,000 an inmate in Hawaii.

Kaneshiro says lawmakers don't seem to get the message on the urgency of building a new prison or providing his department with additional funds to jail inmates elsewhere.

Dan Foley, American Civil Liberties Union attorney, also agrees that the burden lies with state lawmakers. "The buck stops with the Legislature because the Legislature enacts laws that ultimately results with so many people in the prison system and doesn't allocate the resources to manage them."

Hawaii now has nearly 550 male inmates at two Texas state prisons run by the Bobby Ross Group: Dickens County Correctional Facility, 60 miles east of Lubbock; and Newton County Correctional Facility, about 80 miles northeast of Beaumont.

Sixty-four female inmates were transferred to Crystal City Correctional Center about 100 miles southwest of San Antonio, in July.

Kaneshiro said the private company is building a medium-security facility at Kingmon, Ariz., south of Las Vegas, and wants the state's business.

Kaneshiro has maintained that the state needs two prisons: a 1,500-bed facility for men and a 500-bed facility for women.

In the past, Kaneshiro has said that without a new prison, the state will be back in the same situation as in 1984 when the ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit aimed at correcting prison deficiencies, including overcrowding.

Both the Oahu Community Correctional Center and the Women's Community Correctional Center were the targets of the ACLU. Under the consent decree issued a year later the court ordered improvements at both prisons.

This summer the women's facility in Kailua was conditionally removed from the court order pending the completion of a 64-bed annex at the Olamana facility which was opened earlier this month. The women's facility is expected to be removed from the consent decree later this year.

Yesterday, ACLU attorney Foley said the situation at the Oahu Community Correctional Center has reached crisis proportion where inmates are sleeping on the floor and three inmates are sharing a cell.

Foley said the Kalihi facility is nearly 300 inmates over its capacity of 891 inmates.

If the crowding isn't remedied by January, Foley said the ACLU will go back to federal court to get monitoring reinstated.

Garcia said lawmakers this year allotted $500,000 to begin the search for a new prison.

Two possible sites have emerged. Both are on the Big Island: 300 acres of state land near Hilo and another area in Kau.

Garcia said he has heard reports that some Kau residents favor a prison because of the jobs it would create.

But Garcia acknowledged that building a new prison is time-consuming and the crowding at OCCC and tensions at the Halawa Medium Security Facility are immediate.

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Jury still probing death
of inmate in Texas prison

Star-Bulletin staff

A Texas grand jury is still investigating a May 9 prison fight where five Hawaii inmates may have been involved in the death of a Montana inmate while serving time in a Texas facility.

Ted Sakai, state prison spokesman, said the grand jury met in July and as yet no indictments have been handed down in the beating death of Neal Hage, who was serving time in the Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur, Texas.

Five Hawaii inmates and two from Montana are suspected in the beating death of Hage, 32, who died of head injuries sustained in a prison yard fight.

Hage was serving a 40-year term for murder. His assailants could face the death sentence under Texas law. None of the Hawaii inmates suspected in the beating have ever been identified.

Fifteen Montana inmates believed to be white supremacists are thought to be responsible for the fight, which involved 15 prisoners from Hawaii. Hawaii prison officials said the Montana inmates started the fight because they were jealous of the preferential treatment Hawaii prisoners got.

Nearly 600 male inmates are housed at two privately run Texas prisons.Sixty-four female inmates were transferred to Texas in May to help alleviate Hawaii's prison overcrowding problem.

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Prison hearings

The State House Public Safety Committee will hold 6:30 p.m. hearings about two prison sites on the Big Island:

Oct. 29: South Seas Luau House

Oct. 30: Pahala Community Center

Comments: Committee Chairman Nestor Garcia says he would like to hear comments on the economic impact of a prison, what the infrastructure requirements would be, whether the community would support programs for a prison and whether the facility should be run by a private company.