Hawaii corrections officials are asking lawmakers for more than $2.6 million to strengthen mental health services in state prisons and jails, as oversight data and public records point to an elevated pattern of suicides and other fatal events in custody. The request is part of a broader effort tied to a class action settlement and follows recent reporting that relied on autopsies and other documents to track deaths in the Hawaiʻi correctional system.
The most recent figures highlight concerns at Hālawa Correctional Facility, the state’s largest prison. According to the reporting, confirmed or suspected suicides accounted for eight of 15 deaths at Hālawa over the past two years, and confirmed or suspected suicides made up more than half of deaths there. The same compiled data found that, during 2024 and 2025, suicides accounted for about one-third of all deaths statewide across Hawaiʻi’s correctional system.
Christin Johnson, an oversight coordinator for the Hawaiʻi Correctional System Oversight Commission, said the pattern is “not normal” and “devastating.” In an interview, she said, “I don’t think it’s normal, and I think it’s devastating,” adding, “I think any deaths in custody are absolutely devastating, but particularly deaths that potentially can be prevented.”
State officials have argued that mental health staffing and intervention practices need to change. Last year, after the state was sued repeatedly over suicides in custody, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation agreed to allow national experts to inspect Hawaiʻi correctional facilities and assess mental health services. The experts’ report described “atrocious” conditions for mentally ill inmates, citing inadequate treatment in understaffed facilities.
This year, DCR Director Tommy Johnson told lawmakers he is pursuing funding to hire nearly three dozen new health care workers, including psychiatrists and nurses, as part of the class action settlement. He also described plans for new approaches intended to reduce suicide deaths, including a pilot assessment algorithm to identify inmates at high risk for suicide. Johnson said the department would pair that risk identification with ankle bracelets to electronically monitor biometric data and provide warnings when a person is in crisis.
DCR’s proposal also includes a broader staffing and operational explanation for why deaths may be occurring at a higher rate than national comparisons. The reporting cited U.S. Department of Justice data indicating suicides accounted for 8% of all deaths in state and federal prisons in 2019, the most recent DOJ data available. In Hawaiʻi, Honolulu Civil Beat’s compiled record showed suicides made up most of the overdoses, homicides and other fatalities that accounted for at least half of total deaths in 2024 and 2025.
The reporting also contrasted where suicides occurred within Hawaiʻi’s jail and prison systems. It said Hawaiʻi had one jail suicide in each of 2024 and 2025, while Hālawa prison recorded eight suspected or confirmed suicides. Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas, said she viewed that distribution as unusual, noting that natural deaths in custody typically account for the vast majority of deaths. She also said it is unusual that suicide would be more common in prison than in jail in a comparable way.
Staffing shortages and limited access to daily activities also featured in the officials’ explanations. Christin Johnson said staffing shortages contribute to inmate suicides and that the state continues to face vacancies for adult corrections officers. She said Tommy Johnson told lawmakers last month that Hawaiʻi had 435 vacant ACO positions as of the end of November, out of 1,535 total corrections officer positions, a vacancy rate of about 28%, while Johnson said the figure does not account for officers absent for extended periods due to injuries or unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
Christin Johnson said inmates can be locked down in their cells for extended periods when there are too few officers to operate essential posts, which can interrupt programs, recreation, family visits and other activities. She said, “Out of cell time is suicide prevention,” and described time outside on the recreation yard, visits with family and access to services, phone calls, classroom and education as forms of suicide prevention. Deitch agreed, saying people locked down without access to programs, recreation and visiting are more likely to become isolated, depressed, and anxious, which can worsen mental health problems.
Tommy Johnson said the department plans to increase mental health staffing and to experiment with “some new tactics” to reduce suicides. Under the terms of the settlement, the state sought 35 additional positions and $2.7 million in additional funding next year for mental health services in the correctional system. Romey Glidewell, health care division administrator for DCR, told the House Finance Committee the new roles would include six psychiatrists, nine nurse practitioners with expertise in mental health, and 18 additional registered nurses.
Johnson said a dozen of those positions would staff an infirmary at the Oʻahu Community Correctional Center. He also said the department plans to launch a pilot later this month using an assessment tool fielded by Falcon Technologies to predict which inmates are at high risk for suicide, with periodic assessments by a psychologist to indicate who should receive additional services or monitoring.
For inmates identified as high risk, Johnson said the department may use ankle bracelets that monitor biometric information so prison and jail staff can be alerted quickly. He said the goal is to intervene faster during crises and that the technology could also help staff interrupt assaults. At the same time, Deitch and Christin Johnson raised concerns about the approach, saying electronic monitoring could not replace direct access to the treatment and engagement that officials described as necessary for suicide prevention.
Deitch said the department’s approach risked substituting for the staffing and engagement needed to provide care, saying, “What they’re trying to do is replace the fact that they don’t have sufficient staff to be checking on people and engaging with them and providing them with the treatment that they need.” She added she found the idea worrisome and said, “Even if you could identify that someone’s biometrics are revealing that they are in distress, that’s not providing them with the care that they need.” She said, “The danger is if that becomes a replacement for something else,” and reserved judgment.
Tommy Johnson also said staffing recruitment remains difficult because correctional work is not seen as attractive and because medical staff can leave for hospitals and other clinical settings that may pay more. He said he does not think the state pays corrections officers enough for the work required. Christin Johnson said pay for critical positions needs to be raised and that the community also needs to pay more attention to deaths in custody, which she said traumatize inmates, staff and families.
“I think that deaths in custody are horrific, especially when it’s a suicide, or homicide or overdose,” Christin Johnson said. She added that if people do not talk more about the issues and work to prevent them, “then we’re failing. We’re failing everybody in the system.”