Posted on: Monday, September 20, 2004

EDITORIAL
Mainland transfers are an embarrassment

It would be a mistake to assume that state correction authorities who intend to send six young female inmates to the Mainland are callous or uncaring.

The temporary transfer is designed to relieve overcrowding. While the girls are away, authorities hope to repair facilities and expand capacity at the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility.

So the plan to shift the girls to a facility in Utah can be seen as little more than a pragmatic response to a temporary problem — a problem that is largely not caused by the corrections department. Rather, it is the result of a society, and a policy-making system, that dictates the incarceration of people without the resources to do the job properly.

A substantial number of adult inmates have been moved to the Mainland in response to overcrowding. That removes them from access to family and the community they will eventually re-enter.

But as unfortunate as it might be to move adults to the Mainland, it is doubly so with young people. There is really no excuse for this.

The youth corrections facility is already the subject of a civil rights investigation by federal authorities.

This latest move offers little confidence that that investigation will conclude Hawai'i is handling its responsibilities properly.