Critics say Hawaiʻi prisons are failing to help released inmates

Advocates say they’ve had to take over reentry services for prisoners released because of COVID-19 worries.

Stafford Kaeo had just the clothes he was wearing and his diabetes medication when he stepped outside the gates of Waiawa Correctional Facility three-and-a-half weeks ago.

“I had no state I.D., no birth certificate, no Social Security card,” he said. “I really had nothing.”

The former prisoner, who was released early on parole from the West Oʻahu minimum security prison because of COVID-19 worries, said he was told of his release only four days prior.

The state Department of Public Safety, mandated by law to provide outgoing prisoners with reentry services, including identification, handed him nothing as he walked out, Kaeo said.