Posted on: Thursday, December 5, 2002

Drug use discovered at prison on Kaua'i

By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor

The Kaua'i Community Correctional Center remains on indefinite lockdown status while officials investigate how inmates in a low-security unit obtained methamphetamine.

A prison employee was placed on leave this week and 13 inmates removed from the Lihu'e prison's "Lifetime Stand" program for low-risk offenders, Warden Neal Wagatsuma said yesterday. In addition to the lockdown ordered Sunday that stopped all in-house programs at the correctional center, the warden suspended work-release, Community Workline and other programs until officials "get to the root of this situation."

Aside from periodic lockdowns caused by staff shortages or other routine circumstances, Wagatsuma said he was unable to recall the last time he ordered a lockdown because of trouble with the inmates.

"We pride ourselves on providing a safe, drug-free environment that's different from a normal prison. This is like a big black eye for us," he said.

Police also are investigating, but there have been no arrests.

Wagatsuma said the case involves only the Lifetime Stand program, which has 84 inmates, and not the higher-security units at the correctional center. The prison houses 150 pre-trial and sentenced inmates in a facility with an official capacity of 128.

After receiving information that inmates were using drugs, some urine tests were performed Saturday, Wagatsuma said. A few of the tests came back positive, and all 84 inmates in the program were tested.

On Monday, a civilian employee suspected of providing the methamphetamine was placed on indefinite leave. Wagatsuma said the worker was not on the security staff. Tuesday, a pipe used for smoking drugs was found underneath a pavilion on prison grounds.

Five inmates who tested positive for drug use and eight others who did not but are "strongly suspected" of involvement have been pulled from the Lifetime Stand program and returned to higher-security units, Wagatsuma said.

He said crowding is forcing wardens to move some higher-risk prisoners into programs meant for inmates who have demonstrated a sincere desire to redirect their lives — even when there are "red flags that they are not the best candidates."