Hawai'i to ship more prisoners to Mainland

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

At least 200 more Hawai'i prisoners will be shipped to the Mainland to ease the crowding in the state's prison system, Public Safety Director John Peyton Jr. said.

While he remains committed to Gov. Linda Lingle's plan to eventually bring back all Hawai'i prisoners housed on the Mainland (which number roughly 1,300) the conditions of the state's facilities are forcing him to deal with the situation on an interim basis, Peyton said.

The state's prison population is more than 5,600.

"We will move some prisoners to the Mainland in order to achieve ... minimum standards," he said. Exactly who would go or where has not been decided, but the public should expect the transfers will occur in the next few months, he said.

"We have a certain number of beds in Hawai'i, and we have more prisoners than we have beds," he said. "We have prisoners sleeping on the floor. In a cell designed for one, we've got three people."

Hawai'i has inmates housed at prisons in Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado. Other high-security prisoners are housed in various maximum and supermaximum lockups on the Mainland.

The state is under no legal or mandated pressures to relieve the present situation, he said, but choosing his words carefully, Peyton added: "We are concerned with the possibility that that is not within the minimal standards that are required."

The state has "a constitutional obligation to inmates to treat them with a minimum level of housing, healthcare, food and clothing," he said.

The moves are temporary, he said, and the Lingle administration is committed to returning all of the prisoners to Hawai'i. "No one thinks that's the best way to go, but at this point it's the only way to go," he said of the Mainland incarcerations.

Peyton said his department is creating a master plan for itself that will determine its priorities, including how to proceed with the issue of new corrections' facilities based on the needs of the prison population.

The process will take several months, he said, and is expected to be ready in time to submit recommendations to the state Legislature.

Expected to play a key role in the decision-making is Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, a former Circuit Court judge who ran on a strong criminal-justice platform.

Peyton is reluctant to divulge his own views about what types of facilities should be built to deal with the inmate population, but he said "clearly we need additional facilities, there's no question about that."

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.