Lingle visits girls in Utah facility

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday said that she reassured seven Hawai'i girls being temporarily housed at a Utah detention center that they would be returned to Hawai'i on schedule at the end of November, and criticized the American Civil Liberties Union for allegedly telling the girls they would be there longer.

Lois Perrin, ACLU legal director in Honolulu, denied that her organization gave such information to the wards.

The state temporarily transferred seven girls from the Hawai'i Community Youth Facility to the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center on Sept. 20 and 21 to allow the state to make upgrades to the Kailua facility. They are scheduled to be there 60 days.

Lingle visited with six of the girls in Utah on Saturday following a campaign swing with President Bush. She told reporters yesterday that she stressed during her three-hour visit with the wards that they would be home by the end of November as promised by the Office of Youth Services, which oversees HYCF.

"That date was always clear but for some reason, a person from the ACLU here who is in touch with these girls is telling them things that simply aren't true," Lingle said. "So whereas in the newspaper here, the ACLU person said that the girls have been told by staff that they weren't coming home in 60 days. According to the girls, it's the ACLU that's telling them they're not coming home. I didn't ask them anything about the ACLU; they just offered that up."

Perrin denied that the ACLU told the wards their return would be delayed. "We certainly are not giving the girls misinformation," she said. "The girls called me frantically saying they had received a call from an HYCF staff member stating that the girls' facility (in Hawai'i) was going to be shut down permanently and that the girls would not be coming home to Hawai'i."

The governor's visit, Perrin said, has "put (the wards) at ease and giving them some certainty about when they will be coming home."

Lingle and Perrin agreed that the Kailua facility should adopt aspects of the program-related emphasis of the Utah detention center.

Lingle yesterday also said Perrin "has not been cooperative" and added, "I hope the board members, the officers of ACLU, really take a close look at what she's done up to this point because it has not been in the interest of the young people and it has not been in the interest of our long-term ability to turn the system from one that's more corrections-focused to one that's based on helping these young people."

Lingle did not cite any examples of what she perceives as Perrin's lack of cooperation.

Perrin responded: "To the extent that any of the ACLU's actions have been perceived as uncooperative is extremely unfortunate and really deflects attention from the main issue, which is that the ACLU has been, is and remains committed to assuring that these kids' civil rights and civil liberties are being protected. And we will continue to do that."

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