Surge In Inmate Suicides Take Toll On Hawaiʻi Taxpayers, Too

Six legal claims are pending over people who killed themselves behind bars, with more to come.

There is a price to be paid for suicides in Hawaiʻi prisons and jails, and state taxpayers are on the hook.

Six cases active in state court are connected to inmate suicides at state-run jails and prisons, and lawyers who represent families of deceased inmates say at least two additional lawsuits over suspected suicides are in the works.

The state has already paid out nearly $2 million to resolve similar lawsuits in recent years, and a scathing new report on mental health care in the Hawaiʻi correctional system suggests the state is at risk for more losses.

That report by Jeffrey Metzner and Bhushan Agharkar, nationally known experts on correctional mental health care, underscores the failur