Driving such a change, of course, is the fear that the U.S. Justice Department otherwise might sue the state to correct what federal investigators call civil rights violations against the teenage wards of the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility. According to a scathing report released last week, the youths don't get the mental health services they need and are mistreated by staffers who do not have the proper training or guidance to protect them.

"It is no exaggeration to describe HYCF as existing in a state of chaos," wrote Bradley Schlozman, the acting assistant attorney general who wrote the report. "The absence of rules or regulations has permitted a culture to develop where abuse of youth often goes unreported and uninvestigated." Specifically, he wrote, security guards are left to make crucial decisions on handling wards and frequently demonstrate a lack of judgment and training; this leaves teens, many of them already at risk of suicide, to fend for themselves. Sadly, none of this comes truly as a surprise. Allegations of abuse and substandard conditions and treatment have been pervasive for decades. The clamor grew louder with the intervention of the American Civil Liberties Union, whose critical report in 2003 led to the federal investigation. In that report, the ACLU issued charges of abuse, assaults and harassment by guards, as well as severely overcrowded conditions.

Fortunately, and to their credit, corrections administrators have demonstrated a willingness to fix the problems. The Lingle administration pursued its own reform efforts at the youth prison two years ago following the ACLU report, removing the facility's two top officials and launching its own investigation into the allegations. That was a good beginning. Now the feds have outlined numerous corrective steps that the state must take — and as briskly as possible. These include training existing staff so that they can more adequately supervise youths, drawing up clear procedures to guide those dealing with wards at risk of self-injury and implementing proper rules governing the correct use of force.

There is no time to lose making these fundamental and important improvements. The lack of accountability at the facility has been endured long enough.

While the state relocated some of the teens to the Mainland last year in order to make some needed physical upgrades to the Kailua property, the problems identified in the report strongly suggest that those in charge must pay more attention to the human element as well.

Those in positions of supervising wards must be qualified to do so. If the state intends to steer younger offenders away from a lifetime in the correctional system, the youths must be treated with an eye on their safety and, it is hoped, their rehabilitation.

They are not to be locked away and forgotten. They're kids — and they're Hawai'i's responsibility.