The family of a man who stabbed his mother nearly to death in 2005 while on release from the Hawai'i State Hospital in Kane'ohe is objecting to his once again being let out of the facility.

Rueben Ortiz, 50, was on conditional release from the mental hospital in April 2005 when he went to his mother's house in Kalihi and stabbed her three times, puncturing an artery in her heart. Minnie Torres, now 79, barely survived. In January, Ortiz was again granted conditional release from the hospital. This time, though, Ortiz is under 24-hour supervision and is staying in a halfway house where his mental status is monitored.

But his family says they still fear Ortiz and want him in custody.

In a Circuit Court hearing yesterday on whether to make Ortiz's conditional release permanent, his family said they were not notified back in January that Ortiz was out of the hospital and think it's too early to take him out of the confines of the institution. Circuit Court Judge Michael Town decided to keep the conditional release temporary and set another hearing three months from now to take up the issue again.

In the meantime, he ordered the mental-health professionals supervising Ortiz to talk to his family.

"The system is failing us," said Ortiz's brother, Harry, after the court hearing.

"It's like a free card to kill someone," added sister Almarena Ortiz.

The Ortiz case was one of a handful that in 2005 were used as examples of how the state was failing thousands of mental health patients in the Islands and their families.

Last year, the Ortiz family sued the Hawai'i State Hospital and the state, alleging officials did not take appropriate precautions to protect them from Ortiz. That lawsuit has not been resolved.

Ortiz suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

He was released from the hospital in 2005 on the condition that "he not make contact with any family member without the permission of his case manager and/or probation officer."

Ortiz's mental-health case manager was never informed by the hospital of that stay-away order, the family's lawsuit alleges.

A stay-away order is also in effect for Ortiz's current conditional release.

Unlike in 2005, he is under constant surveillance, Ortiz's deputy public defender Ed Harada said.

"These conditions are to make sure we have no repeat of what happened" three years ago, Harada said.

In the hearing yesterday, Town tried to find out why the family wasn't notified of Ortiz's conditional release in January.

The family learned he was no longer at the hospital in March, when a friend saw him on a bus.

Deputy city prosecutor Darrell Wong said he does not know why the family wasn't alerted.

Linda Nishimura, of victim/witness services in the prosecutor's office, said there does not appear to be a procedure in place for alerting families or victims when people are released from the State Hospital.

"I think everyone just thought that the hospital would do it," Wong said.

In court yesterday, Ortiz was smiling and lucid.

"I'm taking my medications, working with my treatment team," he told Town.

The judge replied there are concerns about Ortiz's ability to keep up his progress.

"I'm taking a chance with you for another 90 days," Town told Ortiz.