State out to curb prison gangs
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief
For years, Hawai'i's prisons have been free of the violent gangs that plague many Mainland facilities, but inmates returning from prisons on the Mainland are showing more signs of gang involvement, according to the head of the state prison system.
Among the convicts returned to Hawai'i to finish their sentences, prison officials are seeing more gang tattoos, gang "code words" and inmates who acknowledge other prisoners with gang affiliation as leaders, said Ted Sakai, director of the state Department of Public Safety.
Prison officials earlier this year demanded that the Mainland operators of the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona stage a crackdown on a Hawai'i prison gang. One Hawai'i investigator said the gang is "Hawai'i's first bona fide prison gang."
There were prison gangs in Hawai'i in the 1980s, but they have since disbanded, Sakai said. He said prison officials are watching closely for any effort to revive inmate gangs in Hawai'i.
About 1,200 Hawai'i convicts are now held in prisons in Arizona and Oklahoma because there is no room for them in facilities here.
If prison officials are surprised at the increased gang activity among inmates on the Mainland, they shouldn't be, said one member of the gang who agreed to a telephone interview with The Advertiser. The inmate, who is still on the Mainland, asked that his name not be used for fear he would be punished for speaking out.
"What happened was, when we came out to the Mainland, we was forced to make our own groups for survival and protection," he said. "In Hawai'i, no, we never have to ..."
The gang first organized in Oklahoma to counter activity by prison gangs there, he said. Prisoners from Hawai'i crossed racial lines to back one another up, and the inmate said that bothers Hawai'i prison officials.
"The (gang) is not just Samoan. It's the multitude of all races that come from Hawai'i," he said. "They no like our unity, you know what I mean? Because they get us so programmed at home in Hawai'i to fight each other within the prison. When they see us up here in the Mainland, enemies is best friends, or at least associates. They no like that, 'cause now we showing guys down in Halawa (Correctional Facility) or in the system that unity among races can happen. We went do 'em. We went pull 'em off."
The inmate portrayed the gang as a benign organization that at times protected corrections officers from other inmates, and claimed prison officials blamed the gang for incidents caused by other gangs of Hawai'i inmates.
Sakai disagrees.
"No matter what they say, what happened in Arizona was enough to elevate the (gang) to the level of a strategic threat group because they threatened the security of the facility," Sakai said. "Inmates were getting hurt by other inmates."
A report by a Hawai'i investigator alleged that about 100 prisoners in Florence were members of the gang, and claimed every major assault at the prison involving both inmates and staff could be traced to the gang.
The crackdown in Florence was triggered in part by the death of inmate Iulani Amani of a drug-induced heart attack. Amani, 23, died April 16 after swallowing several packets of drugs, which apparently burst in his stomach. Sakai said Amani was identified as a member of the gang.
"Clearly, he was running drugs, and when you have a gang, nobody's going to run drugs on their own," Sakai said.
Officials with Corrections Corporation of America locked down the Florence prison and removed about 40 inmates suspected of membership in the gang. The prisoners were shipped to the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico and two alleged leaders of the gang are now in the "supermax" Colorado State Penitentiary.
Sakai said most of the gang members will soon be moved to the Central Arizona Detention Center, which is another CCA prison across the street from the Florence Correctional Center.
Several of the inmates in New Mexico will join the two Hawai'i inmates in the supermax Colorado prison, Sakai said.
Terry Pelz, a criminal justice consultant who specializes in prison gangs, said the state should "nip it in the bud while you can."
"It's like a localized cancer. Eventually, if it's not treated, it spreads," said Pelz, who oversaw Hawai'i inmates in Texas when he worked for private prison operator Bobby Ross Group.
Hawai'i needs a prison gang intelligence network, and needs on-site monitors at prisons on the Mainland to keep track of what Hawai'i's inmates are doing, Pelz said.
Sakai said the state has arranged for a monitor based permanently in Oklahoma to watch about 600 Hawai'i inmates there, and hopes to make similar arrangements in Arizona. The state has a gang intelligence unit based in Hawai'i.
Reach Kevin Dayton at 525-8070 or kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.
