Forty-seven former Hawaiian inmates released over coronavirus concerns have reportedly been rearrested for new offenses.
City and state prosecutors in Oahu revealed the alarming statistic at a Thursday committee hearing where they called for an end to the release of inmates worried about catching the contagion, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
“We don’t have a case of COVID-19 in our prison system, and that’s good,” State Attorney General Clare Connors told the House Public Safety Committee.
“But many individuals have been released over the objections of prosecutors, we have had re-offenses, and we do think that it’s time for this effort to stop.”
All 47 arrests occurred in Honolulu, the state’s capital.
The city’s acting prosecutor, Dwight Nadamoto, highlighted how some of the 503 inmates released from island jails are violent offenders.
One example, he said, was a suspect who allegedly assaulted a 74-year-old man with a golf club.
Another freed inmate was behind bars for allegedly attacking a woman with a sword.
*story by New York Post