Inmate's mother wants answers in son's death

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

When Darnell Amani's son Iulai was sent to a Mainland prison to serve a 20-year sentence, she promised herself she would see him at least one more time before she passed away.

Drugs may have played a role in Iulai Amani's death.

Iulai, 23, died in custody on April 15 under troubling circumstances that may have included illegal drugs. His body was returned to Hawai'i yesterday, but his death, along with other problems at the private prison where he was held, have once again drawn attention to Hawai'i's controversial practice of sending inmates so far away.

Amani said she hadn't seen her son in four years because she didn't have the money to go to Arizona. "And now to see him dead, it hurts," Amani said. "It's a real problem; they take the guys to the Mainland where they don't have no family. I hope no other parents that have children there have to feel what I'm feeling now."

Hawai'i has sent thousands of inmates to Mainland prisons since 1995 to ease prison overcrowding here. Nearly 1,200 Hawai'i prisoners, including 80 women, are serving time in privately run facilities in Arizona and Oklahoma. About 3,800 more are serving time in Hawai'i, though prisons here were built to accommodate only 3,400.

Another Hawai'i inmate, John Kia, died Wednesday at the Florence Correctional Center, where Iulai Amani was held, and at least three others have been injured this month in fights or assaults. Kia died of natural causes, according to the Maricopa County, Ariz., medical examiner, but investigators have not determined the cause of Amani's death.

Correctional center officials did not return repeated telephone calls Friday or yesterday. But Hawai'i public safety director Ted Sakai said the prison had increased security and that its owners, the Corrections Corporation of America, had ordered a management review after the series of incidents.

Some prison experts believe Hawai'i is setting itself up for continued crime and fiscal problems if it continues to export its prison problems.

"It's totally counterproductive to ship these people out," said Al Bronstein, director emeritus of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Not only is it not rehabilitating people, but it's making them more likely to commit crimes."

Inmates who retain close family and community ties have a much better chance of adjusting to life outside prison — and of staying out of trouble — once they're released, he said.

Sakai said his department tries to transfer prisoners to Hawai'i facilities within a year of their release date so they can participate in local pre-release programs.

"I don't see that as a huge problem," he said.

But Bronstein said Hawai'i also risks growing dependent on its contracts with the Mainland prisons.

"Now that the private companies know that Hawai'i has no choice, they'll raise the price and Hawai'i will pay," he said.

The state has also done a poor job of monitoring conditions in the contract prisons, he said, pointing out that other states routinely post their own staff inside facilities they send inmates to.

"I've heard countless horror stories about what's going on, especially about the lack of medical care in private facilities," Bronstein said.

When prisoners are locked up far from home, it is much more difficult for relatives, local officials, and the media to look into reports of problems, he said: "Out of sight, out of mind. It makes it easier to cover it up if something is going on."

The state's contract with the Arizona prison expires in June and is expected to be renewed. Sakai said he expects costs to increase but declined to say by how much. The Department of Public Safety spends about $20 million a year to send inmates to the Mainland, and the new state budget earmarks $5 million more for such expenses in each of the next two fiscal years.

Sakai said the added money may also pay for two monitors to keep an eye on the private prisons, but that it would not be enough to post one inside each facility on a full-time basis as other states do.

He said prison officials told him that cocaine or methamphetamine may have caused Amani to have a fatal heart attack. If so, Sakai wants to know how the inmate came into contact with such substances while incarcerated.

Court records list no drug convictions for Amani, and his mother said he had only used marijuana. At age 20, Amani was convicted of manslaughter for the 1997 stabbing death of a Waipahu 19-year-old, though he maintained he had acted in self-defense.

Amani's mother said she has many questions about her son's death: Did a visitor bring drugs into the prison that day, or did prison officials? How long did it take to bring her son to a hospital? Could faster or better medical care have saved him? Did he suffer?

"I just have the feeling they're covering up something," she said, adding that she had retained an attorney to look into the case.

"I'm not seeking any kind of money for myself, just the truth about how my son died," she said. "That's what I want to know."