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| Hawaii Settles Suit Over Harassment at Prison |
| By Hawaii Tribune-Herald |
| Published: 05/12/2003 |
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The state has settled a lawsuit over alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women at Kulani Correctional Facility. Under terms of the agreement, scheduled to be read into the court record, the state will split $200,000 among the five female employees who sued in May 2000. The settlement award is subject to legislative approval. The women who sued alleged that they suffered sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation from a 'Hui' of male officers during an 11 - year period. They alleged that one of the men urinated in front of a female officer and that another exposed himself to two of the women. Other complaints included allegations that male officers put cinders in a female guard's gas tank and slashed her tires and that the men wrote threatening and obscene memoranda during work time and posted them to intimidate others. Besides the five male officers, the lawsuit named Director of Public Safety Ted Sakai, and Kulani Warden Peter Mac Donald, as well as the department and the state. Phyllis Ahmadia, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of three female officers, a clerk and a nurse, said the state and the plaintiffs reached the agreement after dismissing the individual defendants from the complaint. 'I think everybody's happy with the settlement,' Ahmadia said Wednesday. 'Not thrilled but I think everybody can live with it.' Ahmadia said the settlement also included nonmonetary terms, many stemming from a 16 - page report by the Department of Public Safety in 1999. That report, prepared by Chuck Nations, detailed a two - day visit he made to the minimum - security facility 20 miles south of Hilo in November 1999. During that visit Nations interviewed many employees and supervisors and all of the senior managers. He also held focus group sessions and administered surveys to 14 people. He found that morale at the prison was low. The site visit found tensions between the adult correctional officers and other employees, according to the report filed in Circuit Court. According to the report, nearly everyone interviewed complained about poor communication at the prison. 'General statements were made that leadership is vindictive, there was no loyalty to the staff and that retaliation often occurred,' Nations wrote. The report added, however, that most employees said they were happy with their jobs. Some people indicated that the officers in the Hui were contributing to the problems. Several memoranda addressed to the security staff signed only 'Hui,' were included in the lawsuit's court file. They referred to Mac Donald in disparaging tones, calling him an 'inmate lover' and unprintable names. Ahmadia said the plaintiffs and defendants agreed to the nonmonetary issues in late 2001. She said many of Nations' recommendations are now in place, along with a new policy on violence in the workplace. Two of the plaintiffs have been permanently transferred to another job, where they're much more content, Ahmadia said. 'We were happy to resolve this.' |
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