HONOLULU, Posted 5:24 p.m. HST January 12, 2001 -- State public safety director Ted Sakai told lawmakers Friday that it's his goal to bring Hawaii's female prison inmates that are housed on the mainland back to the islands.

About 80 women are housed at a prison in McCloud, Okla. because of lack of prison space in Hawaii.

Sakai asked lawmakers for $4 million to build a 100-bed transitional facility for women inmates. He said that it would provide enough space to bring all women prisoners back from the mainland.

"We feel if we could have a program-oriented facility, we can bring those women home," Sakai said. "The women would be better off. We can do better programming for them.

"Women tend to be caregivers for their children and it is virtually impossible for them to do so when they are in Oklahoma and their children are here."

Sakai also said that Gov. Ben Cayetano no longer has an interest in building a new state prison to ease overcrowding in men's prisons. He said the state will rent 200 beds in the new federal detention center that is set to open in September.

The Cayetano administration will continue to send inmates to prisons in Minnesota, Oklahoma and Arizona, according to Sakai.