Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 11, 1 November 2008 — Paʻahao assault [ARTICLE]

Paʻahao assault

To treat the sexual assault of a Hawaiian wahine inmate at Otter Creek Correctional Center by a male corrections officer as a misdemeanor exemplifies the mentality of those who run that private prison: those imprisoned are worthless and should be denied the basic human rights afforded them by the U.S. Constitution. Instead of psychological counseling after the assault, the inmate was put in confinement where she had no one to console or counsel her; no one to listen to her stories of the nightmares she suffered. She did not tell her family for months. Her calls were heavily monitored and often disconnected. The inmate would have had to be brain dead to refuse a transfer back to Hawai'i; she is not. However, the Department of Puhlie Safety appeared never to think of the mental and physical heakh of the inmate who is apparently just a number. The state spends more than $50 million annually to house about 2,000 state prisoners at

privately run prisons on the U.S. continent. Perhaps in these rough eeonomie times we should be seriously considering how mueh $50 million circulating in the state really means. The construction industry certainly could use the boost that building a prison in Hawai'i would create.

Lela Hubbard 'Aiea, O'ahu