Hawai'i's public safety director says 23 female inmates, including seven from Hawai'i, are alleging they were sexually assaulted at a private prison in Kentucky.

Clayton Frank said yesterday that one Hawai'i case, from 2007, resulted in the conviction and termination of a guard at Otter Creek Correctional Center.
Frank says the other cases are still being investigated so he can't elaborate on them.
The state this month sent the Department of Public Safety's deputy director, Tommy Johnson, and two other officials to Kentucky to probe the allegations.
The state pays Corrections Corporation of America $50 million a year to house some 2,000 inmates in Mainland prisons because there isn't enough room for them in Hawai'i facilities.
All the women are held at Otter Creek.