Public Safety director Clayton Frank said today the state will bring back the majority of the Hawaii women inmates now held in a Kentucky prison.

About 40 of the Hawai‘i women have already returned to the Islands. Another 128 will be returned or moved to another prison on the Mainland.
Frank said the inmates will not remain at the Otter Creek prison in Kentucky because of safety.
In July, Frank said 23 female inmates, including seven from Hawai'i, were alleging they were sexually assaulted at the private prison.
Frank said that one Hawai'i case, from 2007, resulted in the conviction and termination of a guard at Otter Creek Correctional Center.
The state pays Corrections Corporation of America $50 million a year to house some 2,000 inmates in Mainland prisons because there isn't enough room for them in Hawai'i facilities.