As a member of the Kaneohe Neighborhood Board, we have received testimony from State Hospital administration claiming the hospital is secure and no danger to the community.
We have also expressed our concern that violent patients seem to walk away almost at will. Less than a month after receiving testimony, we learn that violent attacks on staff are such concern that the HGEA has had to file a greavancy asking for more protection for staff.
We have had windward legislators express their concern for the last two decades. A secure facility to house violent patients is still not available. Will it take a rape or murder in Kaneohe by a violent, AWOL patient to get action? I hope not.
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Comments by John Flanigan, the KNB representative to the State Hospital:
"As a member of the Kaneohe Neighborhood Board, we have received testimony from State Hospital administration claiming the hospital is secure and no danger to the community."
As I remember the testimony, Dr. Fridovich explicitly did not claim the hospital was secure. In fact he made the point that the hospital was designed as a hospital and not a prison. He outlined the efforts they undertake to make it as secure as possible under the circumstances.
"We have also expressed our concern that violent patients seem to walk away almost at will."
This is an unfair exaggeration. The elopement of violent patients is rare, even though they have a large number of them.
"Less than a month after receiving testimony, we learn that violent attacks on staff are such concern that the HGEA has had to file a greavancy asking for more protection for staff."
This is an ongoing problem that the hospital has had to deal with for years. Unless the legislature provides funds for security upgrades, it will happen--just like it happens in even high-security prisons.
"We have had windward legislators express their concern for the last two decades. A secure facility to house violent patients is still not available. Will it take a rape or murder in Kaneohe by a violent, AWOL patient to get action? I hope not."
A naive reader would think from this statement that the legislators are blaming the Hospital for the problem. In fact, they have expressed their understand that the hospital is trying to meet the problem and seem to understand that the only solution is to provide secure housing for violent inmates--something that is beyond the capability of the hospital under the current situation and laws. Do you have a constructive suggestion as to how the hospital could solve the situation, lacking funds for proper secure facilities?
There is another problem that came up that you don't mention: How does the hospital handle elopements? Most of the Board seemed not to understand the law regarding this. If an eloper leaves the premises, the hospital staff no longer has a legal right to apprehend him and bring him back. They do not have powers of arrest. They have to depend upon HPD, who, in turn, cannot simply arrest a person without due process. If that is to be changed, it would require a change in the law, not in the behavior of hospital or HPD personnel.
It would be more helpful if the situation were described in accurate and fair terms and the problem assessed knowledgeably and unemotionally.
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