$1.2 million more sought to house prisoners

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

With new prisons and jails at least three to five years down the road, the Department of Public Safety is asking lawmakers for more money to send more prisoners to the Mainland and pre-trial detainees to the Federal Detention Center near Honolulu International Airport.

Public Safety Director John Peyton told members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee that he is sending 100 more prisoners to the Mainland this year and another 100 next year, bolstering the out-of-state population to 1,550 by June 30, 2005.

The additional Mainland prisoners will cost the state $2 million more this year, and $5 million more next year, Peyton said. The state spends about $28 million annually to house 1,350 prisoners.

Additionally, the state wants $890,651 to transfer 25 inmates to the Federal Detention Center in a similar effort to relieve crowding at the jails. The state leases 75 beds there to house pretrial detainees.

Gov. Linda Lingle has said she wants to eventually bring all incarcerated on the Mainland back to Hawai'i. And a new plan recommends that seven of the state's eight corrections facilities be replaced.

But Peyton said he doesn't expect to see any of those facilities for at least three to five years.

"The transfer of Hawai'i inmates to Mainland facilities with excess capacity would buy some time for the department and the state to implement permanent solutions to address the overcrowding problem and to minimize the risk of costly litigation based on unconstitutional conditions," Peyton said.

The state pays $52.53 per inmate for a basic daily fee for those sent to the Mainland. That's about half the roughly $102 a day it costs to keep prisoners locally. But the cost of keeping prisoners on the Mainland is increasing at about 2.5 percent a year. As a result, public safety officials are seeking $1.2 million in additional money for fiscal 2005 to pay for the added costs.

The cost for the Federal Detention Center space for pretrial detainees is $95.99 per prisoner per day but that cost is also going up. Public safety officials want $44,226 to cover the cost of a 2.25 percent increase at that facility next year.

Senate Ways and Means Chairman Brian Taniguchi, D-10th (Manoa, McCully), said that while only pre-detainees are held at the Federal Detention Center, he would like Peyton to talk to federal officials about including those in the state's prison system to be housed there temporarily as an alternative to the Mainland.

Taniguchi appears resigned, however, to the likelihood that more money will need to go to sending prisoners to the Mainland for the time being.

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