House and Senate lawmakers who say it's time to rethink the state's practice of sending Hawai'i inmates to the Mainland are advancing a bill aimed at bringing 175 Hawai'i women prison inmates back from a privately run Kentucky prison.

The Senate Public Safety Committee approved a bill last week instructing state corrections officials to develop a plan for returning the inmates by July 1, 2009. The House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee approved an identical bill late last month.

The proposal rekindles a debate about how best to house Hawai'i's inmate population, with the chairs of both the Senate and House public safety committees saying the Mainland option needs reviewing.

"I feel that looking at the re-entry and the reintegration of prisoners eventually into our society, we need to have them close to their families here in Hawai'i, where I think that they'd be better served," said Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Public Safety Committee.

House Public Safety Chairwoman Cindy Evans said some of the women were the sole caregivers for their children before they were sent to prison, and it is important for the women to maintain their family ties.

"By removing her, that removes her access to the family, and we don't think that's a good idea," Evans said. "We're also finding that most female prisoners are not the real violent ... types; they're in there maybe for drug abuse, and the types of crimes they committed were to feed their habits."

"These women are going to go back into our community and go back home, and we feel it's better to have them here instead of on the Mainland," she said.

The controversy over how best to house Hawai'i inmates turns on questions of cost and compassion.

While officials cite savings as a major factor for sending inmates to the Mainland, opponents decry the practice, saying it's unduly harsh on inmates and their families.

New cost figures released to The Advertiser bear out the cost savings, however.

The state Department of Public Safety statistics show it costs state taxpayers almost twice as much to hold women prisoners in Hawai'i as holding them in privately run prisons on the Mainland.

The department calculates it costs the state about $117 per day to hold a woman inmate at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua, and $104 per day to hold a male inmate inmate at Halawa Correctional Facility.

By comparison, it costs about $62 per day to hold the same prisoners on the Mainland, according to the department.

At the end of January, the state was holding 2,115 prisoners on the Mainland, which is about 58 percent of the state's total prison population.

Hawai'i holds a larger percentage of its prison population outside the state than any other state in the nation.

The state spent $41.7 million to house about 1,850 Hawai'i inmates in private prisons in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona in the year that ended June 30, 2006.

That cost is expected to increase to at least $45 million this year with the recent increase in the number of prisoners held out of state.

The state recently sent about 200 additional prisoners to the Mainland to clear out portions of Halawa to make repairs to the prison.

It is unclear where the women inmates now on the Mainland would be held in Hawai'i.

The Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua is the state's only prison for women, and the state moved the women to the Mainland in the first place because there was no room for them at WCCC.

The Hawai'i women's prison holds about 260 convicts.

Espero, of the Senate Public Safety Committee, said some of the women might be released to community reintegration or drug-treatment programs, or it may be necessary to expand the in-state prison system to make room for the returning inmates.

Iwalani White, interim public safety director, supports the concept of returning the women to Hawai'i, but said through a spokeswoman that it would be a "disservice" to return the women to Hawai'i unless there are bed spaces and rehabilitation programs available here for them.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.