Lawmakers give preliminary OK to corrections reform measure By Sophie Cocke
Hawaii’s jails and prisons are poised to come under the oversight of an independent commission with powers to conduct investigations, obtain internal documents and conduct unannounced inspections after state lawmakers gave preliminary approval Friday to a sweeping bill aimed at reforming Hawaii’s criminal justice system.
The Hawaii Correctional Oversight Commission would be tasked with overseeing the state Department of Public Safety. In addition to acting as a watchdog for the state’s troubled correctional system, the commission also would be in charge of shifting the state’s prisons and jails away from a punitive model to one focused more on rehabilitation.
“One of our goals for the oversight commission is to create a correctional system that is safer, smarter and more transparent than the one that we have now,” said state Rep. Gregg Takayama, chairman of the House Public Safety, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee.
The commission would be made up of five members appointed by the governor, Senate president, House speaker, chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court and chairman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The governor also would appoint a full-time, salaried oversight coordinator from a list of three nominees submitted by the commission. The oversight coordinator would be in charge of adopting rules, carrying out investigations, assisting the commission and filing monthly reports with the commission, governor and Legislature.
Hawaii’s correctional system has been plagued with problems for years. The jails are severely overcrowded, and there continue to be reports of sexual assaults on inmates and inmate suicides. The Public Safety Department has struggled to keep track of when inmates are supposed to be released, sometimes letting them out early or holding them long beyond their scheduled release dates.
In 2017 the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice alleging conditions in Hawaii’s jails and prisons violate constitutional protections against “cruel and unusual punishment.” The report detailed overcrowding, understaffing of medical and mental health services, unsafe food practices, unsanitary conditions and aging infrastructure.
Strained conditions at the Maui Community Correctional Center hit a breaking point in March when a riot broke out among inmates that took more than three hours to contain.
Supporters of the bill hope that putting the correctional system under independent oversight will help usher in reforms.
House Bill 1552, which still needs a final vote in the House and Senate before it can be sent to Gov. David Ige for final decision- making, also aims to reform the state’s bail system and reduce the jail inmate population. A recent state task force report found that pretrial inmates arrested on misdemeanors can be sitting in jail for weeks before they get a bail hearing.
The bill would expedite the bail process by requiring risk assessments and bail reports, which currently have no time requirement, to be completed within three days of someone being incarcerated.
The measure also requires that inmates be able to post bail seven days a week and that correctional facilities continually review pretrial detainees to see whether they should be eligible for pretrial release, among other reforms.
The bill, as well as Senate Bill 192, which is also set to pass the Legislature, implements a number of the recommendations of two task forces created by the state Legislature in recent years to improve the criminal justice system.
“I think there are some very significant reforms and innovations adopted today in this bill and the other bill that passed that I think are in line with what the task force asked for and will really move us ahead to come up with a system that achieves the objectives of keeping the public safe while ensuring that folks who are entitled to be released pretrial would be able to do so, not simply be held because they can’t afford to post bail,” said Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald.