The state agency that oversees Hawaii’s jails and prisons would be required to submit a report to the governor within 48 hours of the death of an inmate or employee of a correctional facility under bills being considered by the Legislature this year. The legislation has the backing of inmate advocates who say too many Hawaii inmates have died in recent years, particularly from suicide.

But how much information would actually be released under the proposed legislation is unclear. Both the Hawaii Department of Public Safety and state Attorney General’s Office have raised concerns that disclosure of certain information could violate federal health care and state privacy laws even though information on inmate deaths is routinely reported by other states.

The House Judiciary Committee is set to decide on whether to advance House Bill 336 today, while a Senate version of the measure, Senate Bill 1077, is set to advance to a vote by the full Senate.

The legislation was introduced in response to the death of Gregory Silva, an inmate at the Kauai Community Correctional Center, in November 2016. His grandmother Henrietta Napolis said it took months for the family to obtain details surrounding Silva’s death. He died of a drug overdose.

Lawmakers say there are currently no state reporting requirements on inmate deaths, leaving the Department of Public Safety with significant discretion over what information is and isn’t released. The proposed reporting requirements under the bills would apply to correctional facilities in Hawaii, as well as Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, which houses about 1,450 prisoners from Hawaii.

Kat Brady, coordinator for the Community Alliance on Prisons, has spent more than two decades advocating on behalf of Hawaii inmates. She says information about inmates’ deaths is hard to obtain.

“I haven’t been able to track deaths,” she said. “The only way I find out is I get a call from a family that says, ‘Oh my God, my son just called — somebody 52 years old just died in the yard.’”

Inmate suicides

Inmate suicides have raised particular concerns in recent years, with 26 inmates committing suicide between 2010 and October, according to information from the Department of Public Safety. Nine of the suicides occurred between 2016 and 2017.

A task force led by Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Justice Michael Wilson recently recommended to the Legislature that the state create an independent oversight commission to oversee Hawaii’s jails and prisons, in part because of the ongoing problems with inmate suicides — a recommendation that the Legislature is also considering this year.

Recent deaths “have been or are being investigated by the Department of Public Safety, but to our knowledge no outside experts have been consulted about the situation and the Department of Public Safety has consistently asserted that there is nothing wrong with its suicide prevention policies or staff training,” according to a December report submitted to the Legislature by the task force.

Call for transparency

Advocates for reforming Hawaii’s corrections system hope that the bills requiring the Department of Public Safety to provide reports on inmate deaths will provide greater transparency on what is happening in jails and prisons.

The bills would require the Department of Public Safety to submit reports to the governor that include the name of the dead inmate; their age and gender; the location and cause of their death; and the medical review conducted following their death. The governor would then be required to submit those reports to the Legislature.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs submitted testimony on the measure urging that this information also be disclosed to the public.

“Inmate deaths have become too common an occurrence in our criminal justice system, and information about these deaths is sparsely disclosed,” according to written testimony submitted by OHA. “In recent years, a rash of violent deaths and apparent suicides among young, mostly Native Hawaiian inmates held in local and out-of-state facilities, has prompted public outrage, especially in the Hawaiian community. The public is increasingly distrustful of our criminal justice system and concerned about the safety of our family and community members held in the ‘custody and care’ of PSD.”

Officials from the Department of Public Safety didn’t show up Tuesday to testify on House Bill 336 when it was heard by the House Judiciary Committee. In written testimony, Public Safety Director Nolan Espinda said his department is “committed to transparency” but also concerned that the 48-hour reporting requirement could run afoul of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly referred to as HIPAA, federal legislation that safeguards certain medical information.

The Hawaii Attorney General’s Office echoed those concerns, adding that state privacy laws could also prevent the release of certain information, and urged that the director of the Department of Public Safety be given some discretion over the release of information, which could require the consent of family members.