WAILUA — The COVID-19 pandemic has led to long-term changes at the Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center.
In the first, state-sanctioned tour since the onset of the pandemic, jail representatives Friday led The Garden Island through the facility, which now features an remodeled parking lot and front office, 42 new security cameras and a new sallyport for prisoner intake.
Six recently installed booths throughout the wings of the prison will soon allow inmates to attend court on Zoom, and a shipping container set up this summer can accommodate four inmates in quarantine.
Cabins close to the highway house inmates participating in the Lifetime Stand program, a paramilitary regimen of drill exercises, physical training, education, community outreach and outside work.
“They earn their way into these cabins,” said Corrections Officer Tammy Kaua. The bunks, which began as FEMA trailers during Hurricane ‘Iniki, are not fenced in, and feature a courtyard with stations that allow inmates to visit with family virtually.
These inmates are paid regular wages for their work.
“We have electricians, truck drivers, masons,” said Maintenance Supervisor Carl Braun. “They’re working towards getting back into the community.”
Lifetime Stand inmates can volunteer on a farm at the other end of the property, which has been used to grow dragonfruit, taro and other crops that are eaten by prisoners or donated to community organizations.
During the pandemic it has become less productive, Kaua said. But they hope to get it back to full capacity soon.
Overcrowding
Though less extreme than some other Hawai‘i prisons, overcrowding remains an issue at the correctional center. Originally built to house 16 inmates and later expanded to house 128, the jail is routinely over capacity, a problem going back decades.
In Module A, which houses long-term offenders under higher security, space is tight. Two rooms are being remodeled to make them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, leaving inmates crammed into the remaining cells.
“Always lock your locks,” said Braun, closing the door to the unit under construction.
In one area, 12 inmates are packed into a space meant to hold eight, and limited bed space means that several inmates end up sleeping on the floor. Above one of the bunks, prisoners have sketched a pencil mural spanning most of the wall. On the wall opposite, hundreds of tally marks count the days until release.
Currently, 116 inmates are housed in the jail — a number that is sometimes as high as 174. This comes as a concerted effort to reduce jail time for those who are deemed not to need it, Kaua said.
“The court was helping us keep people out of jail,” said Kaua. “We’re in constant contact with the courts to identify people who could be released.”
Overcrowding was a particular problem during the pandemic, as outbreaks made it more difficult for inmates to access public defenders. This made cases progress through the courts more slowly, meaning that inmates remained in jail longer pretrial — contributing to the overcrowding problem in a vicious circle.
While COVID-19 restrictions are loosening in most other areas, they remain strict at the correctional center, as per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Masks are still required indoors, and inmates still have enforced intake quarantines.
Like other workplaces, staffing has been tough, with many longtime employees opting to retire during the pandemic.
Despite all this, Kaua — who previously worked at Maui Community Correctional Center for two years — said the small and relatively low security at the Kaua‘i correctional center is the “easiest jail to work at.”
More changes are in the works, and in 10 years the jail will likely not be operating at this location, state Department of Public Safety Public Information Officer Toni Schwartz said.
A planned highway expansion — in the works for decades but finally funded by the state Legislature — will eat into the jail’s parking lot space. That, along with the age of the building, flooding and overcrowding concerns, has led the department to prioritize finding a new site.
Championed by prison reform advocates, a pilot program to provide inmates with bus passes and state IDs on their release was initiated at the Halawa Correctional Facility on O‘ahu this summer. Shwartz says they hope to expand that program to Kaua‘i in the near future.
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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.
