The response marked the latest frustration in attempts to obtain more information about inmates over-detained in Hawaiʻi correctional facilities. Earlier this year, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) said nine inmates had been held beyond their required release dates in its facilities last year, but it has continued to withhold information about the cases. DPS also denied a similar request for information last year submitted by Lawyers for Equal Justice (LEJ), a nonprofit law firm that’s part of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, which advocates on behalf of social justice issues.

Isaiah Feldman-Schwartz, a legal analyst with LEJ, said the firm had received tips from various sources with knowledge of the system who believed a significant number of people were being over-detained, sometimes for long periods of time, which is what prompted the records request.

“We were also told that there was definitely an intersection with mental health issues because a lot of the people who tended to be over-detained were not necessarily totally with it and may not have been totally aware of their surroundings or understood what was happening to them,” said Feldman-Schwartz. “So that was making it more difficult for them to advocate on their own behalf.”

Tom Helper, LEJ’s director of litigation, said DPS appears to be relying, at best, on hyper-technical arguments and delay to avoid releasing potentially embarrassing documents, as well as drawn-out investigations.

“They seem to be going to considerable lengths to avoid disclosing documents and relying on these apparently never-ending, open-ended investigations as an excuse not to provide information to the public,” said Helper. “And that really violates the spirit and intent of the legislature in passing the Information Practices Act.”