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A contractor that provides store orders for more than 1,000 Hawaii convicts at a privately run prison in Arizona has jacked up its prices, a move critics condemn as “price gouging” that is causing hardship for the Hawaii inmates and their families.

Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, said the new commissary pricing of bottled water at Saguaro Correctional Center is also endangering the health of some inmates. The tap water at Saguaro is so heavily chlorinated that some prisoners cannot drink it, she said.

Inmates also complain the Hawaii prisoners are being charged more than prisoners from Idaho who are housed at the same facility. Brady said the commissary pricing has become “a huge issue because it really impacts some of the poorest families in our community.”

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Tommy Johnson said Hawaii inmates complained about the price increases this spring, and staff are scrutinizing the commissary price increases with prison owner and operator CoreCivic.

For items where the price increases were 200% or 300%, “they found substitutable items that cost less that are now going to be on the menu,” Johnson told the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission last month. “For those items where they could not find a replacement that cost less, we take them off the list altogether.”

The department said CoreCivic’s subcontractor was responsible for the price increases. Keefe did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Johnson said a review of the recent price changes by Hawaii staff concluded the vendor had discounted some items that were not selling well, and increased prices on many popular items. The increases could be to offset wholesale price increases, and “it could be because the vendor wanted to make more profit,” he said.

The vendor, Keefe, told CoreCivic that it had not raised commissary prices in several years, and did so this year to “catch up,” Johnson said. He said CoreCivic contracts with the vendor, and Johnson does not control which vendor is chosen.

The commissary offers goods for sale ranging from specialty hygiene items to Spam, potato chips and healthier foods that are not offered as part of the regular prison meal service.

The current four-year contract between Hawaii and CoreCivic calls for the company to provide a commissary for inmates, but does not specifically give the state control over commissary prices.

Department policy covering facilities in Hawaii sets the maximum mark-up for commissary items in Hawaii correctional facilities, but exceptions can be made with the approval of the deputy director for corrections.

State law also requires a 4% surcharge be imposed on commissary sales to help fund the system, or SAVIN. That system allows crime victims and others to monitor the status of inmates in the correctional system.

Cara Compani, interim oversight coordinator for the correctional system oversight commission, said “price gouging is common in commissary nationwide. I’m not saying that it’s fair or acceptable, just common.”

She estimated a mark-up of 30% was normal in other systems she has worked in, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Washington, D.C., correctional system.

The commission wanted to know why the price increases happened at Saguaro, and why now, she said. Compani said she was pleased with the response by the department and the line-by-line review of the old versus new prices.

Johnson said that items on the Saguaro price list generally appear to be reasonable when compared to Hawaii prices, and said complaints from inmates seem to have dropped off since adjustments were made to the price list.

“If our inmates are being treated unfairly, then that needs to be addressed,” he said.

Johnson said commissary purchases are an important morale booster that gives prisoners something to look forward to. They can order once or twice a month from the price list, he said.

Mark Patterson, chairman of the correctional system oversight commission, said the commissary system offers an incentive to encourage prisoners to work and budget to make purchases. He said the commissary should be seen as part of the overall rehabilitative programming in the system.

“When you talk about pricing, are we serving the purpose of commissary by gouging the prices?” he asked. “You can focus as much as you want on the pricing, but is the program being accomplished?” He said the oversight commission is preparing its own report on the issue of prices and price increases.

The price of bottled water at Saguaro is a particular concern because of the Arizona heat, and because inmates with kidney problems must frequently drink water, said Brady, who is a longtime activist and critic of the Hawaii correctional system.

She said the price of a case of water has nearly doubled under the new pricing to almost $15.

“When people make 25 cents an hour (on prison facility work lines), you would have to work a long time to afford a case of water,” she said. “This is really a health issue, and I’m hoping that the department takes that into consideration.”

She described it as “invisible incarceration” because it is often the inmates’ families who pay the high prices to provide necessities to family members inside.

Critics of new pricing say Hawaii prisoners now pay more than inmates from Idaho who are serving time at the same facility. Johnson said in an interview on Friday that is because Idaho uses a federal pricing index that is not in place for the Hawaii commissary.

He said Hawaii is also trying to get standardized federal pricing for the Saguaro commissary because it is more stable. The Idaho and the Hawaii commissaries are separate, and CoreCivic apparently did not realize the Hawaii inmates were paying more, Johnson said.

The state is currently holding 1,033 state prison inmates at Saguaro because there is no room for them in Hawaii facilities. The state has not built a new correctional facility since opened in 1987.