Isle prison to ship
6 inmates to Utah

The ACLU and the female youths
object to next week's transfer

All six girls held at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility are temporarily being transferred to a lockup in Utah as part of the state's effort to ease overcrowding among young prisoners, officials said yesterday.

All of the girls have signed a grievance stating they don't want to be transferred, according to an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, which has called for reforms at the Kailua lockup.

The girls' transfer, scheduled to last two to three months, comes as the state faces an investigation by the federal Justice Department into alleged mistreatment of wards and abusive conditions at the prison.

Kaleve Tufono-Iosefa, the facility's administrator, said the transfer was being made in part to temporarily ease overcrowding. The move will allow some of the 55 boys being held in 30 cells to be transferred into the 10 cells in the girls' unit.

The girls "are the smallest population of all so they were easier to move at this time, but it's only temporary," she said.

While the girls are away, the state plans to upgrade some security systems and provide additional training for prison staff as it continues to address the abuse allegations, Tufono-Iosefa said.

ACLU attorney Lois Perrin said the move highlights the problem the state has with overcrowding.

"These problems are now forcing the state to send our kids to a mainland facility," she said. "That kind of physical distance will make it much more difficult for kids to be rehabilitated as well as to reunite with our community and our families."

She added that all of the girls were upset about the move when she met with them Wednesday. "They don't want to go," she said.

The state chose to send the girls to the mainland because "they've run from all the programs we've put them in" on Hawaii, Tufono-Iosefa said.

Girls are scheduled to leave next week for a facility in Salt Lake City.

Officials will continue trying to reduce the facility's population before bringing the girls back. In the meantime, if a girl is sentenced to the youth facility over the next two to three months, officials will arrange to temporarily house her in Kailua until she can be transferred to Utah, Tufono-Iosefa said.

The ACLU first raised allegations of mistreatment last year in a report to Gov. Linda Lingle. One guard was sentenced in July to 15 years in prison on charges he raped a female ward.