A New Oahu Jail May Need To Be A Lot Bigger In The Near Future … Consultant projections show hundreds more people will need to be incarcerated if no significant policy changes such as bail reform reduce the number of inmates.
New projections released Thursday suggest the jail being planned to replace the Oahu Community Correctional Center will need to accommodate more than twice as many inmates as the original Kalihi jail was designed to hold.
Consultant Pulitzer/Bogard & Associates studied years of data on the OCCC inmates, and concluded that if the Hawaii criminal justice system continues on its current trajectory, by 2024 the new jail will need 1,012 jail beds for pretrial and other inmates, and another 393 less secure beds to house convicted felons who are soon to be released.
Longtime prison reform advocate Kat Brady told the Hawaii Correctional Systems Oversight Commission after a presentation by Pulitzer/Bogard that she is “appalled” the state would contemplate building a new jail that could house as many as 1,405 prisoners at a time.
