Gov. Neil Abercrombie told a class of 26 adult corrections officer recruits Friday that they are getting in on the ground floor of what he described as a statewide initiative to revamp and reorient the corrections program.
Visiting the class with state Department of Public Safety Director Ted Sakai, Abercrombie said that the planned reopening of Kulani Correctional Facility in early July is just a start, and plans are in the works to replace the antiquated and overcrowded Hawaii Community Correctional Center in Hilo and to build a jail facility in Kona, as well.
“As you know, the west side of the island is growing in numbers and density … there’s a new Judiciary complex over there,” Abercrombie said. “My plan includes building jail facilities, correctional facilities on the Kona side and eliminating the necessity of going back and forth with prisoners.”
“There are going to be more opportunities in terms of professional openings on that side. … There are going to be new opportunities in what are now nonexistent positions and responsibilities. All that’s part of an integrated plan and opening Kulani is just a step in an overall plan for the Big Island,” he said.
Abercrombie said the plan is to eventually house 200 inmates in the minimum security facility near Hilo and to eventually return all Hawaii inmates housed in private prisons on the mainland.
The governor said he received approval Thursday for a $350,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to help fund initial training for an agricultural program at Kulani using inmate labor. He said it’s part of $8 million in grant funding earmarked for what he described as a sustainable program which will include greenhouses and other agricultural infrastructure plus recycling of green waste to energy.
“I think this is going to lower the recidivism rate,” he said. “We’re not only going to be training people, we’re going to be giving people a sense that they are not just in a hopeless situation marking time … Road, water and power construction means there’s going to be jobs in the construction industry, as well.”
He added that the program would tap the expertise of the state Department of Agriculture and the agriculture program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Abercrombie said he has a six-year plan for revamping the state’s corrections system that includes closing Oahu Community Correctional Center, which he described as “inadequate” from the day it opened. He said he believes he can find a private developer who can make a better use of the land OCCC occupies in the lower Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu and who will fund and build a jail elsewhere.
The governor, who is up for re-election this year, is facing a primary challenge from State Sen. David Ige. A Honolulu Star-Advertiser/Hawaii News Now poll last month of registered voters gave Abercrombie a 47 to 38 percent edge over the Leeward Oahu Democrat. That same poll gave likely GOP challenger Duke Aiona a 48 to 40 percent lead in a head-to-head matchup. Aiona was the lieutenant governor in the administration of Abercrombie’s predecessor, Linda Lingle, who shuttered Kulani in September 2009.
“When Kulani closed, it wasn’t just the facility closing,” Abercrombie said. “I know that people had to leave their families and leave the islands to take jobs elsewhere. I know that people got bumped because we didn’t have adequate personnel in the facilities that we did have. Closing Kulani caused a whole disruption in our corrections system.”
Asked afterwards about a lawsuit filed over the state’s alleged failure to implement Act 117 and establish a place of refuge at Kulani, Abercrombie said he wouldn’t comment on the litigation.
“What we’re here today about is to see to it Kulani not only reopens, but that these young men and women who are thinking about having a career in corrections understand that they’re going to be part of an initiative towards the complete revamping and reorientation of the corrections program … throughout Hawaii. And the Big Island is the kickoff to that.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.