State denies Mississippi inmate plans

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

Public Safety officials in Honolulu yesterday denied reports that 500 Hawai'i convicts are about to be transferred from Arizona to a prison in Mississippi, but said the state is studying the possibility of moving inmates to other states.

Amalia Bueno, assistant to Deputy Director for Corrections Frank Lopez, said the state's contract with Corrections Corporation of America to house male inmates from Hawai'i on the Mainland will expire on June 30 and the state is looking into alternatives.

However, she said no deal has been struck to move convicts to a prison in Mississippi run by Corrections Corporation of America. "We're not in negotiations, but we're looking at all options," she said. "We have a bed space problem."

The Mississippi Department of Corrections said Tuesday that Hawai'i was expected to send at least 500 maximum-security inmates to a prison in Tutwiler.

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said the inmates are in Arizona prisons. He said they should arrive in Mississippi as early as next month.

Epps said there's been talk that after Tutwiler received its first 500 inmates from Hawai'i, 500 more prisoners would be coming from Hawai'i.

He said he's been in discussions with CCA and officials in Hawai'i in recent days.

The Mississippi Senate has sent Gov. Haley Barbour a bill that seeks to keep open a private prison for the inmates in Tallahatchie County. The bill would allow Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the prison, to house maximum-security inmates at the Tutwiler facility, which is now limited to minimum and medium security.

However, in Honolulu, Bueno said that "definitely" no move of inmates from Hawai'i to Mississippi is planned.

When asked whether Hawai'i is in discussions on the possibility of such a move, she replied that "I think discussions might be too strong of a word. We're considering our options."

Hawai'i pays private prison operators and the federal government about $30 million a year to house inmates in privately run prisons in Oklahoma and Arizona and at the federal detention center in Honolulu.

As of this week the state has 836 men and 64 women in private prisons in Oklahoma, and 528 men in Arizona.

Prison officials have asked Hawai'i lawmakers for an emergency appropriation of $2 million to allow them to move another 200 inmates in the next few months from state-run prisons in Hawai'i to the federal detention center or prisons on the Mainland, Bueno said.

This article contains information from The Associated Press.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.