State silent on juvenile transfer

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The state Office of Youth Services would not say yesterday when girls housed at the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility would be transferred to an unnamed juvenile detention facility in Utah.

State officials last week said the transfer would be for 60 days, giving the Office of Youth Services time to repair a building and relieve overcrowding at HYCF.

A few dozen members of the faith and social services communities met at the state Capitol yesterday to protest the planned transfer.

It was also unclear yesterday whether the number of girls at the facility had grown from the original six.

"If there are only six girls, it's unbelievable they can't be accommodated," said the Rev. Sam Cox, treasurer of the Interfaith Alliance of Hawai'i, one of the organizations opposing the transfer.

Cox said he and others had heard the transfer would take place imminently, but Sharon Agnew, director of the Office of Youth Services, said she could not disclose scheduling or other details.

"At this point we have no comment on the days of the transfer," Agnew said. "For security reasons we would not do that, and we want to respect the situation for the girls."

Public defender Carolyn Brown, an advocate for some of the girls, confirmed there had been related hearings Friday and yesterday in Family Court, but said she could not disclose any details. She also declined to comment on the facility's female population, other than to say the maximum at any given time has been 12 girls.

Kat Brady, legislative coordinator for the Hawai'i Juvenile Justice Project, said the community had sent a flood of e-mails calling the plan by the Office of Youth Services "outrageous."

"We know that in Hawaiian culture strength is family, and since their mission is to strengthen families, what the heck are they doing?" Brady said. "Have they done any work to help the parents prepare?"

Brown also said the lack of alternative places to commit children in the juvenile system is central to its shortcomings. "That's why many of us are members of the Hawai'i Juvenile Justice Project," she said. "Why don't we have a place where these girls can go?

"It's all about Hawai'i's need to provide for their children, the need to find alternatives to incarceration," Brown said. "I go to national juvenile defender conferences (and) they laugh at me that we have a dozen girls and we can't handle that."

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.