On this Aloha Friday, you may be looking forward to a variety of weekend activities. But for prisoners, the highlight of a weekend is often visitations from family members. A year ago, those visits were consistently cancelled - now they take place on a routine basis.
As part of our weeklong series of following up on stories, we spoke with Nolan Espinda, director of the Department of Public Safety. He took the job earlier this year, and made it a priority to end the habit of cancelling visitations. He’s worked with wardens across the state to make that happen and since January, there has been just a single weekend cancellation.
Espinda is also working to cut down the number of escapes from work furlough programs. He says out of the 400-people in furlough programs this year - 25 have walked out. He admits that figure isn’t good – but says furloughs are critical for inmates to transition back to the community.
Espinda says the biggest problem he faces now is overcrowding in community correction centers, where capacity often pushes 150-percent. He plans to ask lawmakers for funding to build dormitory style housing to relieve the overcrowding.
