As a state Senate committee plans to look into an escape and a homicide in Hawaii’s prison system, Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said Thursday he has a plan to improve training and recruitment screening of corrections officers.

Sakai said the Department of Public Safety wants recruits who are better qualified and to give them rigorous training.

In the meantime, the enlistment of new recruits has been suspended for about three months, but some 31 persons already recruited will receive improved training, department officials said.

By June 1 the department hopes to have new application exams and an improved screening process for physical agility. The current recruit class will not have to undergo a new application process and screening.

Sakai’s comments follow numerous errors by corrections officers that led to the escape of murder suspect Teddy Munet from outside Circuit Court facilities Feb. 20.

On Saturday, 76-year-old pretrial inmate Cyrl Chung, awaiting trial for robbery, was beaten to death in Oahu Community Correctional Center.

Joseph Tui Jr. was indicted Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder in the case.

State Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Safety, said he plans to hold a special hearing in two to four weeks looking into the incidents.

"We are going to do everything we can to make sure these type of incidents won’t happen again," Espero said.

Espero said the escape by Munet could have resulted in a more serious outcome had he succeeded in his attempt to hijack a vehicle near the courthouse.

Regarding the OCCC killing, Espero said he wants to review the decision by corrections officials to house Tui with Chung.

Espero criticized Sakai’s decision to postpone training of the 31 recruits for a week while officials reviewed training methods but allowing them to receive $836 each while staying home. He said Sakai should have thought of keeping the recruits busy in other ways.