Months After Delivery, Portable Cells Sit Unused At Hawaii’s Largest Jail … Crowded conditions in state-run jails are aggravating the spread of Covid-19, but the portable cells have been no help so far.
Two containers that are supposed to be used as medical isolation cells at the state’s largest jail are sitting unused more than eight months after they were delivered because prison officials discovered the jail’s aging electrical system cannot accommodate the extra load of the new cells.
The containers are configured into four cells each where inmates can be placed in quarantine to help control the spread of Covid-19 at the Oahu Community Correctional Center, where staff have been struggling to cope with a new wave of infections.
That jail now has 80 active cases of Covid-19 among the inmates, and the crowded conditions there and at other state correctional facilities are being blamed for the latest wave of infections.
