Two years ago, the Legislature tasked a watchdog commission with tracking and weighing in on the state’s endeavor to shift its corrections system focus from punitive, to a model that steps up rehabilitative efforts. Granted broad powers — conducting independent investigations and making unannounced prison inspections, among them — the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission holds potential to spur positive changes.
However, while the five-member commission has met monthly for more than a year now, Gov. David Ige last year declined to release $330,000 to allow the all-volunteer panel to hire staff. This year Ige didn’t include the overdue funding in the biennium budget he submitted to the Legislature, which is currently being debated.
Without staff, the commission is hard-pressed to carry out much of its envisioned work. Although all of the members have worked or are employed in the state’s criminal justice system, their collective opinion on the inner workings of the state Department of Public Safety (PSD) and plans for the agency’s future is only as good as the commission’s ability to investigate.
This week, the state House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs advanced Senate Bill 664, which would, in part, appropriate funds to the commission to hire an administrator and support staff. This provision is worthy of support from lawmakers and the governor. Without it, the much-needed watchdog is missing teeth.
Last month, Ige offered up flimsy rationale for withholding commission funding, telling the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that, due of the pandemic, starting new programs “doesn’t really make a lot of sense right now, considering the state of the economy.” To the contrary, it’s high time to take an independent hard look at the trouble-plagued Public Safety department, and make improvements.
While COVID-19 health threats are rightly a front-and-center concern in jails and prisons, PSD has a long history of complaints about its centers: overcrowding in dilapidated living quarters, inmate rioting, lack of guards and subpar rehabilitative services. Withholding oversight commission funding is as good as tapping the brakes on transparency in state spending and operations — and that’s a disservice to the public.
The Honolulu Police Commission’s recent push to more effectively serve as the public’s eyes and ears marks welcome progress. Amid a federal investigation that has resulted in prison terms for former police chief Louis Kealoha and others, that commission has put more distance between itself and police administration — resulting in more healthy supervision, and less rubber-stamping. Similarly, at the state level, public trust hinges on openness and accountability.
Another SB 664 provision would authorize PSD to build a new jail, replacing Oahu Community Correctional Center. In written testimony, the state Department of Accounting and General Services described the Kalihi facility as, “in parts, over 100 years old, and neither adequate nor appropriate to meet today’s correctional needs” due to escalating maintenance costs, lack of a safe and efficient work environment, and inability to address detainees with special needs, such as those contending with mental health issues.
While a new facility clearly is needed, the bill’s latest draft missteps by watering down the oversight commission’s role by requiring only its input — rather than approval — on proposed new jail plans and designs.
With much of the corrections system operating far from public view, the commission watchdog — with biting teeth intact — is needed to help rectify systemic wrongs. Lawmakers and the governor should follow through on realizing the intent of reform-minded law that created the commission — by providing the panel with sufficient funding and authority.
