HONOLULU (AP) _ A new report says that about 150 low-risk Hawaii inmates held in mainland prisons could be returned to the islands.
The report by Criminal Justice Institute Inc. found the security classification system Hawaii prison officials use to decide where to house inmates overestimates the risk convicts pose.
The state is paying about 3 million (M) dollars a year to keep these 150 inmates in medium-security mainland facilities instead of housing them in low-cost community programs in Hawaii to get them ready to return to society.
Hawaii pays more than 50 million (M) dollars a year to house more than 2,000 state prison inmates in privately run correctional facilities in Arizona and Kentucky. The prisons are run by Corrections Corporation of America.
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