Federal Detention Center ready
| • | Church looking to buy land under OCCC |
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The new floors in the lobby sparkle, and many of the rooms have terrific ocean views. The menu includes roast beef, egg drop soup, chicken long rice, and kalua pork and cabbage.
The new Federal Detention Center near Honolulu International Airport will house federal defendants awaiting trial, convicts returning from the Mainland and immigration detainees.
There's an on-site medical facility with its own X-ray machine.
Each guest receives a headset for watching television without disturbing others.
The major drawback is that the guests won't be allowed to check out when they choose. The staff at the new Federal Detention Center near the Honolulu airport will make sure of that.
The newly completed $63 million center at Aokea Place and Elliot Street is virtually complete and is expected to receive its first two dozen "guests" from Mainland prisons late next month.
The facility will house federal defendants awaiting trial in U.S. District Court in Hawai'i. Associate Warden David Huerta said there are about 385 such inmates held in federal facilities on the Mainland.
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| This is a view of one of the two-tiered general population cellblocks.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser |
The detention center is designed to house 670, but is equipped with bunks to hold twice that many if the federal government resorts to double-celling.
Each housing unit has recreation areas, but there is no weightlifting allowed: That was banned in new federal prisons and jails years ago because inmates were "using it to their advantage," Huerta said.
