Correctional industries helps solve Hawaii's labor shortage.

The recent downturn in tourism, Hawaii' s main revenue source, has resulted in no-growth budgets for state agencies. Even though crowding in Hawaii's jails and prisons is a growing problem, the state's Department of Public Safety has been asked to deal with a ballooning number of inmates with less program monies.

Because of its island economy, Hawaii faces economic trends that often run counter to the rest of the country. Hawaii, for instance, has a low unemployment rate, and entry level jobs are hard to fill. Most products are acquired off island and are very expensive. These problems have created an opportunity for Correctional Industries in Hawaii to form partnerships with government agencies, nonprofits and the private sector to fill product and service voids.

In fiscal year 1991, Hawaii's Correctional Industries employed 56 inmates. By 1994, that number had jumped to over 400. This growth is the result of a strategic plan that identified the types of work programs available to offenders and analyzed product and service requirements. On the basis of this plan, three innovative work programs were developed and expanded: Community Work Industries, Traditional Industries and Private Sector/Correctional Industries Joint Ventures.

Community Work Industries

In Hawaii, Community Work Industries is designed and managed to provide services to the inmate's resident community at a reduced cost. Public and nonprofit agencies hire inmates to work on-site at their location. The participating agency or organization provides work supervision and pays inmates' wages, which range from one dollar per hour up to a maximum of minimum wage. An adult correctional officer may be required to supervise, depending on the number of offenders employed and their classification.

During fiscal year 1994, more than 50 inmates were employed in Community Work Industries on projects that included maintenance and repair work for the Hawaii Air National Guard, building stage sets for a local theater, and providing Meals on Wheels to senior citizens.

Traditional Industries

Traditional Industries works with tax-supported agencies and nonprofit organizations with the goal of reducing their cost of goods and services. The program provides job training and work experience for 250 inmates, and funds from the sale of their goods and services are allocated to support their activities. The inmates earn between 38 cents and two dollars an hour. Through this program, a substantial amount of money is saved from the Department of Public Safety's operating budget. The cost of alternative programs for this many inmates would be prohibitively high.

Printing. One area that Traditional Industries is very active in is printing. Hawaii does not have a state printing operation. By law, state agencies must have their printing done by Correctional Industries unless they seek and receive approval to use a private sector printer. Updated equipment and implementation of a state-of-the-art printing operation have increased Correctional Industries' printing capacity and brought the printing operation up to standards in compliance with the state mandate. As a result of the updated equipment, Correctional Industries formed a partnership with the Department of Taxation and printed more than 500,000 1994 Hawaii state tax forms. This print job brought in $1.4 million in revenue for the state. These forms previously had been printed on the mainland.

Computer Programming. Them is a public perception that Correctional Industries provides busywork to reduce idleness and train inmates in skills that do not prepare them for gainful employment, such as manufacturing license plates. In reality, Correctional Industries administrators strive to develop programs using state-of-the-art technology that will provide inmates with skills necessary to secure employment when they return to the community. While growth in this area is slow, there is a national trend to expand in high-tech operations.

In pursuit of this goal, Hawaii Correctional Industries formed a partnership with Kapiolani Community College to construct a two-year pilot project consisting of on-the-job training and coursework in computer programming. For an inmate to be eligible for this operation, he or she must hold a certificate in computer programming.

The operation, called Paragon Microsystems, began with inmates setting up computers and logging on to the network used by the Correctional Industries administration staff. The first order for programming was to write software for data bases for the Aloha State Games. The next project required a much higher level of programming skills. Correctional Industries was asked to cream a three-level system for the management of the Chapter 1 Program for the Hawaii Department of Education. Chapter 1 is the law governing the management of special students. It has extensive reporting requirements that require data base management at the school, district, state and federal levels. The program provides software for more than 200 schools, 10 districts and the Hawaii Department of Education.

The second phase of this partnership included training inmates to build, sell and service computers. Correctional Industries is now making its own private label computers under the Paragon Microsystems imprint. The operation is averaging sales of 20 systems per month. Each system is purchased by the agency at a 10 to 15 percent cost savings over comparable systems.

Other Products and Services. In addition to printing and computer operations, Hawaii Correctional Industries' products and services include wood and metal office furniture, upholstery and refurbishing, light construction, data processing, textile sewing, craft products and educational toys.

Private Sector/Correctional Industries Joint Ventures

In Hawaii, the Private Sector/Correctional Industries joint venture program allows private sector companies to set up manufacturing and service operations within correctional facilities or employ offenders under the supervision of the Department of Public Safety at the site of the private company. Acceptance of joint venture programs in Hawaii has been growing largely because of the need for entry level, labor intensive workers.

More than 125 inmates are currently working in joint venture partnerships in Hawaii, earning between $5.25 and $8.90 per hour. Correctional Industries deducts 20 percent of the wages and shares the money with the host facility. This motivates facilities to find space for joint ventures. An additional 5 percent of the inmates' wages is deducted for a victims' compensation fund. Deductions also are taken for taxes and family support. This probably contributes to the growing acceptance of joint ventures; the public likes to see inmates working and contributing something to society.

Hawaii Correctional Industries allows two types of joint ventures: the employer model and the customer model. In the employer model, the private company provides management, on-site supervision, on-the-job training, and all machinery and equipment. Private industry staff interview and employ inmates at the prevailing wage. The employer pays workers' compensation insurance. The Department of Public Safety provides space at reduced rates, vocational training, and a Correctional Industries representative to coordinate and supervise the program according to the needs of the institution and the employer.

In the customer model, the state owns and operates the prison-based business. Correctional Industries provides all the operational functions, including managing, training, supervising and interviewing inmates. An example of the customer model in Hawaii is a contract Correctional Industries has with the Outrigger Hotels, a chain with more than 20 hotels, to refurbish its furniture. The hotel company provides raw materials and quality control and is charged a price per piece of furniture that includes all expenses for Correctional Industries. Correctional Industries pays the inmate $5.25 an hour and supervises the operation. Correctional Industries has refurbished furniture for two complete hotels with a total of more than 400 rooms at a cost savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the hotel chain. The state also benefitted from this joint venture because Outrigger's business stayed in Hawaii; the hotel chain had been considering purchasing new furniture offshore.

The most exciting and unusual private sector joint venture negotiated by the Department of Public Safety involves the Wailuku Agribusiness operation on the island of Maui. This company had been importing workers from the mainland to pick pineapples and process macadamia nuts, and housing them in a dormitory on the pineapple plantation. Through a joint venture, Wailuku began using inmate labor to pick and process pineapples and nuts, and the Department of Public Safety was able to acquire the dormitory to house 48 offenders, thereby relieving crowding in facilities.

All program costs except for correctional officers' wages are paid for through the program. Correctional Industries receives $8.90 for each hour worked, of which $2.25 goes toward the cost of incarceration at the special facility.

Correctional Industries has three joint ventures on the island of Hawaii involving inmates from the Hilo Community Correctional Center. Inmates process dry cleaning and laundry for Hilo Quality Cleaners, pack papayas and process papaya juice at Tropical Hawaiian Products, and process macadamia nuts at Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation.

Also on the island of Hawaii (at the Kulani Correctional Facility), American Telephone & Telegraph Company has trained and certified eight inmates in basic microstation computer aided drafting and design. AT&T pays well above the minimum wage to have inmates create, edit and plot two-dimensional scaled and unscaled drawings of telephone and utility facilities.

On the island of Oahu, inmates from Halawa Correctional Facility imprint and package Spaulding golf balls for Pacific Precision Imprinters while inmates from Oahu Community Correctional Center package tourist items such as hula outfits, golf ball packages and Hawaiian food and specialty items for Island Import Company.

The Hawaii Legislature supports the Correctional Industries work programs to the extent that they have removed restrictions and passed the necessary laws to ensure that Correctional Industries can operate like a private sector business. Additionally, the Hawaii Revised Statutes mandate that the department will recommend a possible reduction in the minimum term to the Hawaii Paroling Authority for any offender satisfactorily participating in the Correctional Industries program for a minimum of one year or the equivalent of one-half the balance of the term remaining to the tentative parole date. The possible reduction in the minimum term is determined by the performance and evaluation of the offender by Correctional Industries program officials. One offender's minimum sentence of 10 years was reduced by 17 months. This motivates individuals to perform well in Correctional Industries programs.

Administering programs on a tight budget is a real challenge for states, especially with today's burgeoning inmate populations. What makes Correctional Industries so appealing is that it creates revenue while teaching inmates employable skills. For Hawaii, the solution to prison crowding and underfunded programs is work.

Lynn McAuley is the administrator of Correctional Industries for the Hawaii Department of Public Safety.