Hawaii wants a $1 billion superjail. Is it worth the price tag?

HONOLULU (CN) — Clint Lefcourt tried to write his speech three, maybe four times, but the words wouldn’t cooperate.As he stood before a room of activists and lawmakers on a humid evening this October, the 37-year-old handyman from Waianae instead decided to wing it.“I always do better extemporaneously,” Lefcourt said with a nervous laugh before launching into an abridged version of his life story.“I was socially awkward and socially stunted,” he said, a dorky, cross-eyed kid with thick glasses and no dancing skills. At 14, he discovered alcohol and weed. “I took one hit, and I just got all the endorphins that I was missing.”By 15, Lefcourt was smoking meth. His father, a high-ranking Honolulu police officer, sent him to jail.Fast forward to today, and Lefcourt has been in and out of the prison system 16 times.The “long story short,” he said, was “eight felonies” and “22 years smoking ice.” He said prison couldn’t change or fix him, but a stay at a treatment center eventually did.Lefcourt’s testimony came as concerned citizens gathered at the Central Union Church in Honolulu to discuss what should be done about the crumbling Oahu Community Correction Center or OCCC. It’s the biggest jail on Oahu, which is itself the most populous island in Hawaii.Almost everyone agrees that conditions at OCCC are unacceptable. In 1984, the ACLU sued the state over the conditions and won, resulting in a consent decree that lasted until 1999. Tommy Johnson, who runs the state prison system, has openly expressed concerns about another one.“They’re overcapacity. There’s a shortage of [corrections] officers,” state Senator Brandon Elefante, a Democrat, told Courthouse News. There is “a dire need for modernization and a new facility.”Clint Lefcourt, a handyman and former inmate at Oahu Community Correctional Center, speaks at a community forum hosted by the Reimagining Public Safety Hawai‘i Coalition, sharing his belief in rehabilitation and alternatives to incarceration. (Katherine Sims-Wilson/Central Union Church via Courthouse News)But the growing price tag for a replacement prison has ignited a fierce debate in Hawaii.Last legislative session, lawmakers set aside $30 million for planning and design. That follows nearly $25 million already spent over the past decade on planning efforts.Johnson estimates that altogether, the project will cost more than $900 million. Further adding to the controversy, officials are planning the project as a public-private partnership. Although it won’t exactly be a for-profit prison — the state will lease and run the facility — business interests will nonetheless be involved in the locking up of people.Outside the governor’s office in June, members of the Reimagining Public Safety in Hawaii Coalition, part of ACLU Hawaii, delivered a petition for Democratic Governor Josh Green, urging him to pause construction plans and redirect funds toward community-based alternatives.“We agree that the conditions in OCCC are unacceptable, and something must be done,” said Liam Chinn, member of the coalition. “But the claim that the only solution is to build a brand new $1 billion superjail that will be financed and maintained by a private for-profit company is recklessly irresponsible to Hawaii taxpayers.”OCCC first opened in 1916, with further portions built in the 1970s. Designed with a capacity for 628 prisoners, it now regularly houses more than 1,000.Water leaks, inadequate ventilation, and crumbling infrastructure create what many call inhumane conditions.Corrections officers don’t want to work there. As of Nov. 30, 2024, 434 of the prison’s 1,535 positions were unfilled — a 28% vacancy rate. Mandatory overtime has become routine, with officers working double shifts in facilities they describe as dangerous and deteriorating.Even so, groups like Reimagining Public Safety question whether a new facility is truly necessary. Chinn says there have been no official studies supporting the claim that OCCC is too old and can’t be renovated.“We have schools on this island that are older than 100 years old,” said Carrie Ann Shirota, another member. “We don’t just tear them down. We actually have maintenance plans.”Vehicles move through the parking lot outside the Oahu Community Correctional Center in Honolulu. The century-old facility, first opened in 1918, shows its age with weathered exterior buildings visible behind security fencing. (Jeremy Yurow/Courthouse News)Even if officials determine a new jail is truly warranted, critics question whether it needs to be a pricey superjail with 1,300 beds.Much of the opposition taps into deeper concerns about incarceration in America. The ACLU of Hawaii argues incarceration is both extraordinarily expensive and counterproductive. The group estimates it costs around $112,000 per year to incarcerate one adult in Hawaii, compared to $30,000 per year for supportive housing and mental health services.Shirota, a former director for a reintegration program on Maui, pointed to research showing that recidivism rates are significantly lower for people who receive supportive housing.For “people in our program who participated, [there was] a significant, statistically significant decrease in recidivism,” she said.As of January 2025, nearly 69% of prisoners in OCCC are pretrial detainees who can’t afford bail. Many are being held on nonviolent offenses, with bail amounts as low as $50.According to state Department of Corrections data, approximately 40% of people in Hawaii’s jails are homeless. Around 30% are Native Hawaiian, even though Native Hawaiians comprise only 10% of the state’s population.Johnson, the Department of Corrections director, estimates that as many as 87% of people held at OCCC could be on supervised release in a community setting instead. Thus, in the eyes of critics, overcrowding represents not a shortage of beds but a shortage of empathy.As it stands now, a new OCCC looks likely to be built. With planning money already in place, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is moving forward with next steps, from formal design work and a state-required environmental review to requests for proposals from private developers.Still, since this is a major government project, it will be a long process, with many more opportunities for public comment and legislative debate. Construction is slated to begin in the late 2020s, with the jail not inmate-ready until the early-to-mid 2030s. That gives activists lots of time to turn up the pressure. More lawmakers might also sour on the project as the $1 billion price tag comes into focus.There’s another wild card in this debate: the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission, an independent body created in 2019 to monitor the state’s correctional facilities.Its five members — Chair Mark Patterson, who also runs the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility; Martha Torney; and retired judges Ronald Ibarra, Mike Town, and Mark Browning — have repeatedly called for a pause in jail planning.In a letter to Governor Josh Green, they cited “serious concerns about DCR’s record of ignoring its recommendations to address deficient rehabilitative programming and health care.” But the commission is only advisory; the decision will ultimately be up to the governor, the legislature and the state Department of Corrections.Elefante, the Democratic state senator, argues the need for a new facility is dire and that Hawaii can’t wait for a perfect plan or moment.“The Department of Corrections argues it must work with the reality it faces today,” he told Courthouse News — “not the reformed system advocates hope to see tomorrow.”Towards the end of the Reimagining Public Safety Hawai‘i Coalition forum, attendees used stickers to vote on how the community should allocate funds for public safety, weighing options like youth programs, job training, supportive housing, and a new jail. (Kristen Young via Courthouse News)Many proponents of a new jail also see their position as the compassionate one.Hawaii’s correctional system has faced severe mental health challenges, including multiple suicides in recent years. Meanwhile, Elefante says licensed psychologists have also been leaving at alarming rates, creating significant treatment shortages.At the public meeting at Central Union Church in Honolulu, also rising to speak was Patrick Watson, a 58-year-old public information manager from Kapolei. He has family in law enforcement and testified in favor.“It’s basically, from what I understand, unlivable-type conditions,” Watson told Courthouse News of the jail. Like Elefante, he said waiting indefinitely wasn’t an option.“I think it’s important to keep it on the radar,” he said. Building a new jail “needs to be prioritized, because you can’t just let it continue the way it is.”That doesn’t change the fact that in the eyes of critics, incarceration is simply not a good answer to societal woes like mental health issues and substance abuse.Speaking to the crowd at Central Union Church, Lefcourt explained how it wasn’t in prison but at the Hina Mauka treatment center where his mindset started to really shift.“The two-year program helped me discover, like, being a good person [and] helping others,” he said. Instead of a new superjail, he proposed a cheaper solution for those caught up in the criminal justice system: a “life program” built around classes like surfing, boxing, dancing, poetry, jiu-jitsu and art. Anything to help people like him find meaning in life without drugs.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing
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