The U.S. Department of Justice and the state have reached an agreement that will give officials here three years to correct serious problems at the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility and avoid federal intervention.

The 31-page memorandum of agreement, released yesterday, addresses the major violations uncovered by the Justice Department during an inspection of the Kailua facility in October 2004.

The findings were released last August and described the facility as being in a "state of chaos" and lacking safeguards to protect the juveniles, a violation of their constitutional rights.

Federal officials had said they would file a lawsuit against the state to correct the problems.

Since then, the state has worked to address the violations and federal officials are satisfied that it's headed in the right direction, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Yee, chief of the civil section in Hawai'i. The two sides have been negotiating on an agreement since last fall.

"The memorandum of agreement has a three-year time limit starting from the date the court issues the order approving the memo. That's when the clock starts ticking, although we think the state has started down the road of improvement already," Yee said. "They've been very cooperative. I think everybody is trying to do the best for the people who are affected by HYCF — the children and families involved."

State and federal officials have agreed on an independent monitor to oversee the state's implementation of the terms of the agreement. The monitor will provide reports to both parties every four months.

Although the agreement was reached, both sides said the state has a long way to go before it satisfies the concerns of the Justice Department.

The report said because the facility lacked policies, abuses of wards by staff and other youths were not reported or investigated. Justice officials also said youths at the facility didn't have access to adequate mental-health and medical care, as well as special education services, at the state's only institution housing juvenile offenders.

As a result, the report said, wards were subjected to violence and there was a failure to protect the youths from harming themselves or committing suicide.

Attorney General Mark Bennett yesterday said the agreement was "fair."

"That's not to say that the state doesn't have a lot to do in order to comply with this agreement, because we do," Bennett said. "This agreement puts a lot of obligations and burdens on the state to comply, but we are confident that we will be able to comply and meet these obligations. If we weren't, we wouldn't have agreed to them."

Bennett said the state has retained a national expert on youth facilities to help the staff with operational improvements. This person currently serves as the juvenile services administrator with the Federal Bureau of Prisons under the Justice Department, he said.

If the problems aren't addressed to the satisfaction of the Justice Department, federal officials will proceed with legal action against the state, Yee said. For now, Yee said, the Justice Department is willing to give the state a chance.

"Rather than waste the federal government's time and the state government's time arguing in court over this, since we do have an agreement over what the problems are, we want to give the state the opportunity to spend those resources they would otherwise spend in court on solving the problem," Yee said.

Among the terms of the agreement, the state will: