Privatization of jail concerns prison official
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
State public safety director Ted Sakai said he has strong reservations about allowing a private company to operate a new jail planned for Halawa Valley, but that the facility is sorely needed to replace the O'ahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi.
Many Mainland prisons are privately operated, but few jails are because the inmate population is very different and requires different skills to manage, he said.
Prisons generally hold inmates serving sentences of more than one year, while jails hold prisoners who are still awaiting trial or sentencing, or who are serving shorter sentences.
The faces in jail change daily as suspects are booked, released, or moved back and forth from court appearances, Sakai said. And many jail prisoners are fresh off the streets, including some who are mentally ill and awaiting psychological evaluations before trial, and others with communicable diseases.
"A jail operation is different from a prison operation," Sakai said. "And we've got all the employees at OCCC already, and they're qualified to do the job."
About 80 percent of Hawai'i inmates first pass through OCCC, he said, and on Monday the facility held 983 — 29 more than its rated capacity.
"If we privatize this facility, we're essentially privatizing our point of entry, which has a lot of activity," he said.
The new jail would house 1,100 to 1,700 inmates, depending on what design is approved. Gov. Ben Cayetano said earlier that he is considering having the new jail privately operated if the cost per inmate is reasonable, and some lawmakers support that approach if it will save taxpayers money.
But some prisoner advocates worry that privatizing the jail would create a profit incentive to lock up inmates who should be placed in drug abuse treatment programs instead, as a new sentencing law allows.
Sakai said about 50 nonviolent first-time drug offenders are currently incarcerated statewide, and that it will be up to the state Paroling Authority to decide whether they should be released to treatment.
He said OCCC is expensive to run because the fenced facility does not have a solid perimeter and because it has several separate buildings that were added over the years as the inmate population expanded.
"Every day, we have to keep four watch towers fully staffed to make sure no one goes over the fence," he said at a briefing called by Republican lawmakers.
The new jail would be designed more securely, be several stories tall, and be less expensive to operate because fewer guards would be needed, Sakai said. It would be built on the site of the Halawa Correctional Facility, the state's highest-security prison.
But the project's cost remains a sticking point.
The state on Monday rejected a proposal from a development group led by Durrant-Media Five because the price was significantly more than the $130 million officials had estimated. Cayetano hopes they can modify the project and negotiate a cheaper price.
Some GOP legislators yesterday said they are concerned that only one group bid on the project, and they questioned the state's plan to finance the jail with certificates of participation rather than less costly bonds. The plan would allow the state to start the project without first gaining legislative approval, but would not compete with other projects for the limited amount of bond money available.
"We can only issue so many general obligation bonds, and this is an alternative financing process," said state finance director Stanley Shiraki.
The method would increase the cost of bankrolling the project by $1.6 million for every $100 million that's needed, and the cost would be spread over 30 years, he said.
But Tax Foundation of Hawai'i president Lowell Kalapa said the estimate appears low and that the actual cost would depend on interest rates and the health of the economy. "I wouldn't necessarily agree with that estimate, given where we are as far as the economy is concerned and what the outlook is for the state," he said.
House Minority Floor Leader Charles Djou called for the procurement process to be as open as possible, "given Hawai'i's long history of corruption and abuse of power in government."
"There have been so many problems with the state procurement process, so a little more transparency would have been better," said Djou, R-47th (Kahalu'u, Kane'ohe).
Sakai said procurement rules forbid officials from disclosing some information about the proposal submitted for the project unless an actual contract is awarded. He declined to say what other companies are involved in Durrant's proposal, and company officials did not return calls yesterday.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
