State gets proposal for private prison in Arizona
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
A private Mainland prison company that houses hundreds of Hawai'i inmates has proposed to build and operate a new prison for Hawai'i in Arizona, Gov. Linda Lingle's staff confirmed yesterday.
The facility would be constructed in Eloy, a community of about 10,000 residents in Pinal County where Corrections Corporation of America runs a 1,500-bed prison that houses federal prisoners and immigration detainees.
CCA floated the idea during talks to renew a contract to house Hawai'i inmates in another CCA prison in Arizona and one in Oklahoma, according to Lingle's staff.
The proposal comes as Hawai'i officials and lawmakers have renewed their focus on the state's drug abuse and prison crowding problems.
Lingle has said at least one new facility is needed here with a focus on drug-abuse treatment and rehabilitation, but that no location or project had been decided on.
Hawai'i inmates in Arizona had heard talk of being moved to Eloy but assumed Hawai'i would take over the existing prison there.
Lingle spokesman Russell Pang said the proposal is to build a facility in Eloy, with CCA fronting construction costs. The administration has agreed to consider the plan, but no deal is imminent, he said.
"The governor's position has always been to bring our prisoners back home to Hawai'i," Pang said. "If CCA puts their proposal in writing, the Department of Public Safety will review the pros and cons and make a recommendation to the governor."
The evaluation would take into account all costs associated with the project and with shipping inmates to Arizona, as well as their health and well-being, he said. CCA officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Hawai'i began sending inmates to private Mainland prisons in 1995 to ease crowding in prisons here, and various proposals to build new prisons in Hawai'i have been considered since then.
Hawai'i spends more than $25 million a year to rent space in the private prisons. Agreeing to use a new private prison in Arizona could allow Hawai'i to quickly address its prison population problems without committing a large amount of state money in advance.
Such a deal could also guarantee CCA a steady income stream and alleviate the risk that Hawai'i will build space for all its inmates and stop sending them to the Mainland.
But Hawai'i prisoner advocates have opposed using Mainland facilities because inmates are cut off from their families and exposed to the Mainland prison gang culture.
Hawai'i's jails and prisons held 4,207 inmates as of Nov. 10, or 720 more than their operational capacity, according to the Department of Public Safety.
An additional 786 inmates were in CCA's Diamondback Correctional Facility in Oklahoma, and 463 were in the company's Florence Correctional Center in Arizona.
About 60 female inmates were also in another private Oklahoma facility, and nearly 40 men and women were in cells the state rents at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
