PU'UNENE, Maui — Gov. Linda Lingle and Central Maui state Sen. Shan Tsutsui have agreed to move forward with plans for a privately built new jail in Pu'unene, Barry Fukunaga, the governor's chief of staff, said on Wednesday.

If all goes as planned, in the next few years, the estimated $235 million, state-of-the-art jail would spring up in Pu'unene's abandoned sugar cane fields. The jail would replace the aged and overcrowded Maui Community Correctional Center, which sits across Wai'ale Road from residential subdivisions in Wailuku.

The agreement to move ahead with the project follows a dust-up during the fall between Lingle and Tsutsui, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. After a Maui News article in September, in which Tsutsui criticized what he said was the jail's high price tag, campuslike design and a general lack of details provided to lawmakers by the administration, Lingle halted the project indefinitely. Tsutsui said he didn't object to the project itself, but he maintained his concerns about the project's design and cost estimates.

Then, Lingle invited Tsutsui to a meeting at her office last week to resolve their differences, the senator said. The meeting included the governor, Tsutsui, Fukunaga and Public Safety Director Clayton Frank. They discussed a new jail plan revised in response to Maui lawmakers' concerns about the earlier plan's "soft design."

After the meeting, Tsutsui said he still has questions and doubts, but he is interested in learning more and seeing the project get under way.

More meetings are in the works with other Maui state lawmakers as well as Mayor Charmaine Tavares and members of the Maui County Council, Fukunaga said.

"We're glad that this little misunderstanding has been put aside, and we can move forward," Fukunaga said. "They (Lingle and Tsutsui) both agreed this is a project of importance, and the necessity is there. We want to proceed without any more delay, and what is being contemplated now is different than what we originally thought."

The state — if it finds a willing investor in these challenging economic times to construct the jail — would rent-to-own the complex, according to the governor's proposal. However, securing private financing is a big "if," and there remains a difference of opinion about whether it should be built all at once or in phases.

The 843-inmate, minimum- and medium-security jail would more than double the capacity of the current jail in Wailuku.

Fukunaga said state-hired architects will be finished in January or February with the final design. Once those plans are done, the state will seek out a private company to build the new jail, he said.

The governor's Neighbor Island Community Advisory Council Chairwoman Madge Schaefer helped put the governor and Tsutsui on the same page by contacting them. Schaefer has been a key figure in redesigning the jail by heading up an unofficial advisory committee with correctional center employees.

The redesigned jail's housing units are larger instead of spread out. They also are self-contained. Inmates will take their meals, medications and rehabilitation and educational classes within each unit, rather than guards walking them from building to building. It's a safer alternative for staff members, too, Schaefer said.

JAIL, NOT "CAMP"

The complex's almost 39 acres also will be encircled with a series of fences and gates, which weren't part of the original plans, she said. That, and the isolated location set back from Mokulele Highway should help deter people on the outside from passing illegal drugs inside, which is a problem at the current jail.

"At first, it looked like they were going to camp," Schaefer said. "Now they'll know they're going to jail."

But even after his meeting with the governor, Tsutsui said he didn't think the planners had done enough to cut costs. He thought the design is "overbuilt." For instance, Tsutsui suggested prison officials construct half as many buildings and just bunk up the inmates rather than give each inmate his or her own cell.

Tsutsui also said that part of the frustration of lawmakers has been caused by spiraling cost estimates. When the Department of Public Safety first proposed the project seven years ago, legislators were told it would cost $70 million to build, with about half the money coming from the federal government, he said.

Lingle's capital improvement plan also says she may seek federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars for the Maui regional public safety complex.

Once the project design is complete, it will go through the bidding process, and that's also when officials will get a better handle on the actual price tag, Fukunaga said.

State Comptroller Russ Saito has said he would like to see construction begin in mid-2010 and be completed by the end of 2012.

An environmental assessment also is nearly complete, Fukunaga said.