Pearl City treatment facility's future in air

By James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writer

Three years after the state opened a juvenile sex-offender rehabilitation program near two schools in Pearl City, residents are still angry that the center has not been moved as promised by the previous state administration, and dozens attended a community meeting last night to voice their concerns.

"I would like to see the facility moved," Pearl City Neighborhood Board member J. Joshua Kaye said before the meeting. "I don't think an incarceration facility is appropriate for the site. When you have juvenile sex offenders located next to schools, that is bothersome."

Kaye said there is wide support for moving the facility, which is a half-mile from Momilani Elementary and Pearl City High School, and opposition to its expansion for other such programs.

The state has ordered a $1 million study that in part will determine the future use of the facility, but is unlikely to result in what the community really wants — getting rid of the center.

Michelle Hill, the Health Department's special assistant for behavioral health, said Gov. Linda Lingle's administration cannot act on a promise made by former Gov. Ben Cayetano, but is asking the community to work with the state's consultant and help develop plans for the facility and its use.

Residents who spoke at the meeting said that a previous consultant had selected other sites for the facility that were ignored by the state.

Tina Donkervoet, chief of the Health Department's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division, said the state has no definite plans for moving, closing or expanding the facility, but has hired a consultant to look into all of those possibilities.

Donkervoet said the state has spent a lot of money to upgrade the facility and that the study is an effort to find a use that fills the needs of patients and that the community can live with.

"What the department has agreed to do is consider all options," Donkervoet said. "If it were not for the community's opposition, we would not be looking to move the program at this time."

One option is to move the sex-offender program to the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility in Kailua and replace it with a juvenile substance-abuse rehabilitation program, but there are other possibilities.

"There is a need in our state for treatment programs for juveniles that have substance-abuse needs," Donkervoet said. "The state put money into renovating that facility. It is a secure facility at this time, and we will be looking at all options."

Pearl City resident Bev Kaneshige said she considers any plans to expand use of the facility a betrayal because the state promised that would never be done.

"How sincere is the department to the wishes of the community when you know we are already dissatisfied?" Kaneshige asked. "It sounds like it is a done deal."

Hill said she cannot promise the facility will move or not expand, but said resident concern would be a factor in any decision.

The board asked the DOH for a clearer picture of what the consultant was going to consider for the facility and asked that a representative report back next month.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.