The prison director told an oversight commission that the correctional system is trying to prevent inmate suicide but can do better.

The internal affairs report claimed staff had been trained in suicide prevention policies, and a guard made the required cell checks. Neither was true, and an inmate died.

A measure to let people accused of nonviolent misdemeanors go free without bail will be put to a final vote in the House and Senate next week.

The lack of staff has effectively hobbled the work of the Hawaii Correctional Systems Oversight Commission.

J. Marte Martinez, who oversees training for the state Department of Public Safety, also is accused of perjury and lying to authorities.

The state admitted liability in the case of a 28-year-old prisoner who was on ‘observation status’ in the medical unit, but hung himself anyway.

A leading Democrat is withholding funding for a new jail in Halawa, arguing officials won’t really know how large the jail should be until the bail reform debate is resolved.

Children who have incarcerated parents are at risk for crime and developmental problems. A bill moving through the Senate seeks to change that.

Staff at the state’s largest jail left some doors unlocked and ajar, which allowed five alleged gang members to attack a prisoner on another floor.

A federal judge ruled the corrections system failed to follow its own protocols for coping with the pandemic, which has now been blamed for 10 inmate deaths.