It’s been well-established that Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC) is bursting at the seams and in disrepair, and Gov. David Ige’s push to relocate the facility to the grounds of the existing Halawa prison is one that lawmakers should ultimately support.
The project is a major undertaking — expected to cost about $489.3 million — and would replace the OCCC’s existing facilities in Kalihi as the area prepares for the imminent rail project.
Ige said in his State of the State address that the land at Dillingham Boulevard and Puuhale Road could then be used for affordable housing, open space for recreation, commercial development and education, among the possibilities.
With rail construction inching its way toward Honolulu, the Ige administration and lawmakers will need to work with a sense of urgency toward replacing OCCC. In doing so, the state will place on the back burner plans to move the Maui Community Correctional Center — a project into which the state has sunk $14 million since 2011 on consultants and design and engineering services.
The project to move the Maui jail from a residential area in Wailuku to land owned by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has stalled for several reasons, including lack of available infrastructure.
State officials simply cannot fall into the same bad pattern of sinking millions of dollars into plans and letting them sit idle.
However, stepping up the pace to rebuild OCCC does not mean the state should skip vital steps.
Ige’s proposed legislation, Senate Bill 2917, in addition to allowing developers to tap $489.3 million in general obligation bonds, would also permit the governor to negotiate directly with developers and exempt the project from Hawaii’s environmental review process.
It would be a dangerous move to carve out exemptions to the environmental assessment. Rarely does skirting the process end with a positive outcome.
Ige himself acknowledged that risk in his State of the State, referring to the failed Superferry project and the stalled Thirty Meter Telescope, in which the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled the state failed to follow procedure in its permitting process. There is no reason to travel down that same road.
So far, lawmakers seem receptive to the Public Safety Department’s efforts to move OCCC, which is housing 1,157 inmates when it was originally designed for 628. But some legislators have rightly asked for a more precise breakdown of costs, and raised valid concerns that bypassing Hawaii’s environmental review process could spark drawn-out litigation.
The OCCC project is an opportunity for the state to accomplish at least two major goals, converging at a near-future crossroads: a modern jail that would meet security and capacity needs, and the wholesale revitalization of a Kalihi district that will be served by rail transit.
Talk of public-private partnerships is bound to surface, and these should be plumbed when it comes to cost-sharing for both OCCC and Kalihi’s redevelopment. As state officials press forward with replacing the obsolete OCCC, though, they must avoid the costly missteps that have plagued past projects.
When it comes to dubious shortcuts, Ige should refer to his State of the State and rethink the wording of his proposed legislation.
