Sex offender parolee program moved
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Parents and school officials are relieved that paroled sex offenders will not be reporting to the downtown office of the Hawai'i Paroling Authority and will instead be sent to another state office building about a mile away.
"When I spoke to the governor Dec. 29, he didn't give us any indication he was thinking of moving it from downtown," said Caroline Oda, head of St. Andrew's Priory School. "So I'm very pleased that he thought about it and made this decision."
Oda said St. Andrew's has about 500 female students, and parents had threatened to pull their children from the school because sex offenders would be in such close proximity. Oda will send notices home with students next week informing the families that the issue has been resolved.
As a cost-cutting measure, the paroling authority last month announced plans to consolidate offices and have an additional 340 convicts, including sex offenders who have been reporting to a facility on Waiakamilo Road, report to its office at 1177 Alakea St., but that plan was postponed after an angry protest by parents as well as residents of the area.
Opponents of the Alakea Street site noted that the building is within walking distance of St. Andrew's Priory School, Central Middle and Royal Elementary schools and Hawai'i Pacific University. They accused the state of being more intent on saving money than protecting the welfare of their children.
Gov. Ben Cayetano decided yesterday not to send sex offenders to the downtown facility and supported a plan by Sen. Rod Tam, D-13th (Downtown, Pauoa, Nu'uanu), to have them report to offices at a state building in Kaka'ako.
Under the plan, 83 paroled sex offenders will report to offices at 919 Ala Moana, across from the Ward Warehouse shopping center. Eight employees of the Hawai'i Paroling Authority will move into the 1,400-square-foot quarters Friday.
The Ala Moana building already houses the central offices of the state Department of Public Safety and Department of Health.
The building is in an industrial neighborhood with no schools close to it.
The Ala Moana location "is a good solution in that it will not cost the state additional money nor is it adjacent to schools," Cayetano said.
The Waiakamilo Road facility will close next week and about 250 parolees who are not sex offenders will then report to the downtown office.
The paroling authority's administrator, Tommy Johnson, said closing the Waiakamilo Road office will save the state about $40,000 a year.
City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura, who had offered to pay the state $50,000 in city money to keep the sex offenders at the Waiakamilo Road facility, said he is pleased with the governor's decision.
"This is the way government should work," said Yoshimura. "I think the governor made a very wise decision."
Staff writers Kevin Dayton and Robbie Dingeman contributed to this report.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
