Posted on: Friday, November 1, 2002
More talks set on girls lockup
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
State officials said they are not sure if or when they will make another attempt to privatize the girls facility at the state youth prison in Kailua, after announcing it will end a contract with the private company operating the site.
The state and the private contractor, Child & Family Service, mutually agreed to end a $560,000 annual contract for the private organization to supervise the 15 girls at the Hawai'i Correctional Youth Facility since August. Boys there continue to be under control of the state.
A date has not been set for the state to take over supervision of girls at the Kailua facility, although it is expected to be this month.
"I think it's too premature to say right now whether we will try again," said Bert Matsuoka, executive director of the state Office of Youth Services, which oversees the correctional facility. "We're going to sit down with Child & Family Service and see what worked and what didn't."
Both sides said yesterday the decision to end the contract resulted from differing opinions on how the facility should be run. They also said it might have shown the complexities of public-private partnership to run the juvenile facility.
They said that the Aug. 31 breakout of 10 girls had not been the key factor, but that the escapes brought up issues they could not reach agreement on, including stepped-up security. Two of the 10 girls who ran away are still at large.
The contract was meant to allow Child & Family Service to bring in programs aimed at helping at-risk youth. But Child & Family Service CEO Geri Marullo claims her organization lacked sufficient authority over other state and private entities at the facility to run the operation properly.
"I think both sides agree this wasn't a money issue, but rather we didn't feel we had jurisdiction over the facility and personnel that included another six to 10 entities," Marullo said. Those entities included state health officials, psychiatric counselors from the University of Hawai'i School of Medicine and other government employees, some represented by the UPW and HGEA unions.
"There were too many layers of regulations, and too many things to coordinate without the authority to do it. If we had the ability to operate with our in-house staff, it may have worked for us," Marullo said.
Child & Family Service asked the state a month ago to make changes to give the private organization more coordination at the facility, Marullo said, but the state refused.
"There was a lot of informal support and promises in the beginning, but when it came down to the specifics, we were not able to work out the details," she said.
Matsuoka said Child & Family Service was aware of what it was getting into when it bid for the state contract earlier this year.
"I think Child & Family Service expected something different entering into this, and perhaps bit off more than they could chew," he said.
Matsuoka said the state would be studying options including having a private contractor handle all juvenile programs while the state handles security.
"It was a learning experience. It just wasn't the right timing for this program," he said. "The easy answer is to lock the girls away until they're 18. But everyone agrees we need to reach the girls so they don't become problems to society during their adulthood."
