Aloha,
Pursuant to the public records law, I would like to request the following records in electronic format sent to my email address.
This is a request for public records pursuant to the Hawaii Uniform Information Practices Act, Haw. Rev. State. §92F-1 et seq. We are requesting copies of all government records pertaining to the contract between the University of Hawaii Community Design Center (“UHCDC”) and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, formerly the Department of Public Safety (“DCR”) regarding the Oahu Community Correctional Center (“OCCC”)
Materials requested: A copy of the contract between DCR and UHCDC for an independent engagement, research and proof-of concept study on the OCCC relocation project.
IF SEEKING PUBLIC INTEREST WAIVER, PROVIDE PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT BELOW THIS LINE
Pursuant to section 2-71-32 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules, the American Civil Liberties Union of
Hawai’i(“ACLU”) hereby requests a waiver of $60 of the fees that may be assessed under
section 2-71-31. The ACLU is a nonprofit and non-partisan organization. Our mission is to protect individual
freedoms guaranteed under the federal and state constitutions. The ACLU has been engaged in legal
action and public education in Hawaii since 1965 on issues affecting constitutional rights.
Public dissemination of the information contained in these documents will contribute significantly to
public knowledge and understanding of the State’s policy and planning regarding jails and prisons. The proposed new jail is estimated to cost the public over $1 billion dollars, and the public has a right to transparency on how funds are being used by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. While DCR and UHCDC have invited the public to comment on the possibility of a new jail, it has not provided sufficient information for informed feedback and decision making. The documents sought are not readily available in the public domain. The ACLU has no commercial interest in the documents requested and intends to publicize this information as it has done with previous open records requests. See, e.g., Michael Levine, Honolulu Police Load Up on Taser Ammo, Pepper Spray,
Bean Bags for APEC, Civil Beat, Sept. 26, 2011, available at http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2011/09/26/12961-honolulu-police-load-up-on-taser-ammo-pepper-spray-bean-bags-for-apec/).
The ACLU of Hawai'i has the primary intention to publicize this information by sharing the ACLU’s
Request and DCR’s response, with the community. The ACLU of Hawai'i has a page on its
website devoted to informing the public about government responses to open records requests,
http://acluhi.org/open-records-requests/. Additionally, the ACLU has over 2,000
members state-wide, and is able to disseminate this information to our members via our newsletter, our Facebook page (which has approximately 4,000 followers), our website (which has received over
100,000 hits since 2011), and our Twitter feed (which has over 2,000 followers). In addition to
publicizing these records on our website, the ACLU of Hawai'i intends to publicize this information by
using some combination of social media outlets and/or our newsletter to help spread this information to our members and the general public.
Depending on the nature of the records provided by DCR, we may also publicize this
information by distributing the records to media outlets such as Civil Beat, the Honolulu Star-
Advertiser, Hawaii Public Radio, and/or various other media outlets. We have the ability to distribute
this information to the media, insofar as we have a comprehensive e-mail database of media contacts, we have developed strong professional ties to many journalists over our 50-year history, and we interact with journalists on a regular basis.
Requester respectfully asks that, if the total fees for this request (including copying charges) are
anticipated to exceed $50.00, Respondent notify Requester and obtain express written permission to
proceed with the request.
Mahalo,
Nathan Lee