Instead, it may be built near
By Gregg K. Kakesako
the Kulani prison or near the
Pohakuloa Training Area
Star-BulletinHILO -- Bowing to Big Island opposition, Gov. Ben Cayetano today said he has rejected Kau as the site for the state's new medium-security prison.
Instead, Cayetano said, he will consider building the 2,000-bed Big Island facility near the Kulani Correctional Facility or on land owned by the state land department near the Pohakuloa (Military) Training Area, which is now leased to Parker Ranch.
"We are still doing an assessment of the land at PTA," said Cayetano, attending the Hawaii Army National Guard's annual training exercises at Pohakuloa.
He said a decision will be made soon, but would not specify when.
At Senate Judiciary Committee hearings last fall, opposition to the Kau site was overwhelming.
Opposition was even more heated -- running nearly 2-1 -- when the committee, chaired by Democrats Avery Chumbley and Matt Matsunaga, met with residents in Pahala in a daylong hearing this year.
Similar discontent was registered by Kau residents when Cayetano held an informal hearing in Hilo on his prison proposals earlier this year.
In rejecting Kau, which is larger than the island of Oahu, Cayetano today acknowledged that "the community is split" on the issue.
He said he respected the objections of Kau's Hawaiian community, which he said is "sincere in its opposition."
Regardless of which site is picked, Cayetano said the prison will have to be built on the Big Island because "it has to be built in a remote area and the island needs the economic development."
Kau residents who favored the prison in their area said they wanted the jobs it would bring, since many have been unemployed since sugar plantations shut down a few years ago.
However, critics were fearful that Kau's rural environment would be shattered by the development of a prison.
The state is seeking a new prison because Hawaii's current facilities are overcrowded, forcing state officials to send 600 inmates to Texas prisons.
Another 600 inmates will be exported later this year.
