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| Hawaii seeks $10.2 million to ship inmates to mainland |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/24/2005 |
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The Lingle administration is asking the Legislature for $10.2 million to send more than 500 additional Hawaii inmates to mainland prisons. The funding would mean that well over half of Hawaii's prisoners would be serving sentences thousands of miles from home. Despite the proposal, Gov. Linda Lingle has said she wants to bring more inmates back to Hawaii once more prison space can be built on the islands. Lingle has said she would ask the Legislature for $500,000 to start initial planning for a privately operated, 350-bed jail in Kona. Hawaii has about 3,850 prisoners, but a policy of not placing more than two inmates in a cell has forced the state to send 1,600 of them to the mainland, said Richard Bissen, acting public safety director, who outlined the administration's plans to the House Finance Committee Thursday. The additional funding would cover transfer of 526 more inmates, he said. The increase would leave about 1,750 inmates in Hawaii facilities, depending on how fast the prison population grows, and more than 2,100 on the mainland. "We can leave more of them here if we put three or four in a cell, but we are just asking for more problems," Bissen said. "The reason we send people to the mainland is so we can alleviate the overcrowding." The state already has inmates serving time paid for by Hawaii in Colorado, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arizona prisons, Bissen said. It has not been announced which states would get the additional prisoners. |
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