Lingle envisions high-rise jail
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Something high-rise in an industrial area — away from residential neighborhoods — is how Gov. Linda Lingle envisions a replacement to the aging O'ahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi.
Lingle, in comments to reporters yesterday, said the new Federal Detention Center near Honolulu International Airport provides a good model for a state community correctional center that would house primarily pretrial detainees, those serving short sentences and prisoners nearing reintegration into society.
Several options are being explored, Lingle said. But the governor made it clear an industrial area was preferred.
"Anything to minimize the public's concern" about safety, she said. Less opposition also would allow the project to proceed more quickly, she said.
Lingle said she found the Federal Detention Center it "quite impressive" on a recent visit. Not only does it provide a secure, organized site, she said, but efficiently uses smaller acreage.
The governor has earmarked $1.5 million in general obligation bonds for an OCCC replacement as part of a supplemental budget request submitted to the Legislature last week. She said then: "I would expect that OCCC would not remain in its current location."
Public safety officials are working with the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Chief of Staff Bob Awana and legislators to identify specific locations, not just to replace OCCC, but other jail and prison facilities as well, she said.
OCCC "was obviously a facility built for just over 400 people — it's now serving 1,100 people," Lingle said. "OCCC was built at a time when there was a theory that we would just have community correctional centers where people would just come up and picnic with their family in the courtyards and everything would be fine."
In reality, she said, OCCC has a large courtyard that cannot be used because of spots not visible to guards.
"It's simply not functional, so we have a lot of unused space because of the original design. I think it's clear now that a jail, the purpose of it, is to separate criminals from the public, and it needs to be built in a fashion that allows the public to be safe, to minimize escapes, to be clean and sanitary for the people who are confined there," Lingle said.
A study released by the Department of Public Safety last week recommended that the state spend $1 billion over the next 10 years to expand and upgrade all the state's prison and jail facilities to more than double capacity. A replacement to OCCC, said the report by Carter Goble Associates Inc., should hold 954 beds.
The study noted that it might be preferable to sell the high-value Kalihi site and use proceeds to help pay for a new jail. It said a site close to the state Circuit Court building on Punchbowl Street "would be ideal for pre-trial detention, (while) low custody, community-based housing units could be located elsewhere on lower cost land."
Public Safety Director John Peyton said he and his staff were reviewing the study to determine which options to recommend to Lingle.
The Lingle budget also calls for $18.7 million in reauthorized money for construction of a new Maui Community Correctional Center, $475,000 to plan a replacement to the Kaua'i Community Correctional Center and $6 million for safety improvements at the Halawa Correctional Facility.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
