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Two more Hawaii inmates have died in prison this fall in what corrections officials believe were suicides, bringing the number of confirmed or suspected suicides in the system this year to four.

That would be the largest number of known suicides in the state correctional system in a single year since at least 2020. Three of the four deaths have been confirmed as suicides, and each of the three involved inmates with a history of mental illness.

The recent deaths come at a time when the state prison system is the target of a class-action federal lawsuit demanding improvements in the mental health services provided for Hawaii prisoners.

That lawsuit was filed by Honolulu lawyer Eric Seitz, who has described mental health services in the state system as “absolutely atrocious.” The lawsuit seeks appointment of a special master to oversee mental health treatment for Hawaii prison inmates.

Data compiled by Civil Beat shows a dozen inmates in the state correctional system have committed suicide since 2020, including the most recent suspected suicide at Halawa Correctional Facility. However, that count may be incomplete because the state generally does not announce a cause of death for inmates who die in the system.

Staff at some state correctional facilities have described a crisis in mental health services in some facilities, with psychologists leaving their jobs at jails and prisons facilities at an alarming rate. One psychologist described it as “a huge mental health crisis” in corrections.

Seitz, who is suing the state over mental health care in the correctional system, said the state Attorney General’s Office has refused to negotiate a settlement in the case. It is now scheduled for trial in June.

The AG’s office declined to comment.

Seitz said the state has failed to make promised improvements in mental health services in the correctional system “and of course, the suicides keep coming.”

Staff in the prisons and jails today are not adequately trained to deal with acute mental health conditions, he said, and the state has no other place to put seriously ill prisoners because the Hawaii State Hospital for the mentally ill is full.

He also alleges the correctional system continues to place mentally ill people in disciplinary isolation cells, which Seitz contends increases the likelihood of suicides.

“Right now the situation is even more explosive and more dangerous than when we started the litigation” in 2019, he said.

If the federal lawsuit is successful and the mental health system in Hawaii prisons and jails is placed under outside oversight, it would be the second time that happened in recent years.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state in 2008, alleging it exhibited “deliberate indifference” to the mental health needs of prisoners at the Oahu Community Correctional Center. A settlement in that case required reforms in some 40 areas, including increasing staffing levels and mandating programs for the mentally ill.

Christin Johnson, oversight coordinator for the , confirmed the most recent death at Halawa on Nov. 20 was an apparent suicide. An autopsy will be done to determine the exact cause of death.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement that an unidentified Halawa Correctional Facility inmate between ages 30 and 40 was found unresponsive in his cell on on Nov. 20, and staff immediately called for assistance.

The department later identified the deceased inmate as Takson Krstoth, who was convicted this year of burglary and second-degree assault in connection with He was sentenced to consecutive prison terms totaling 15 years in that case

Krstoth previously served a 10-year prison sentence for fatally stabbing a neighbor in Mayor Wright Homes, the Oahu public housing project, in 2011.

Staff administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation until the Honolulu Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services arrived, and the inmate was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The department issued a similar statement in response to questions about the death of Hawaii prisoner So’oso’o Motu in October at Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona.

Prison staff found Motu, 36, unresponsive in his cell at Saguaro at about 7:38 p.m. on Oct. 21, according to a statement from the Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was declared dead at 8:14 p.m. at the prison.

An autopsy performed by the Pinal County Medical Examiner declared the case to be a suicide by hanging, and noted Motu had a history of depression and substance abuse.

“It was reported that the decedent was depressed and had past suicidal ideations a few years prior to his date of death,” according to the autopsy report.

Matthan Motu, So’oso’o’s younger brother, said in an interview that So’oso’o told him in a phone call before he died that he had been placed in disciplinary segregation, also known as “the hole.”

The brothers sometimes spoke Samoan because they knew prison staff could listen in on their calls, but So’oso’o never explained why he was being punished. He did say he was unfairly singled out by the guards, and was upset that his electronics including a television were confiscated.

He also said there was extensive gang activity at the prison, including one gang that tried to recruit him, Matthan said. He told his brother he got into a fight, and “he just pretty much said he’s got to watch out for his back all the time.”

“He said there’s always something going on in there, and it’s hard to face your back to the wall,” Matthan said.

The Hawaii Department of Law Enforcement and the Eloy Police Department are investigating, according to corrections officials, and the Arizona prison is cooperating with the investigation.

SCC is a privately operated prison run by the publicly traded company CoreCivic. Hawaii holds 940 prisoners at Saguaro because there is no room for them in Hawaii correctional facilities.

Of the other confirmed suicides this year, one of those prisoners died at Halawa, and another hanged herself at Maui Community Correctional Center.

Nine of the 12 prisoner suicides or suspected suicides in Hawaii since 2020 happened in the state-run network of jails, including six in the Maui Community Correctional Center alone.

Official death reports filed with the governor’s office in 2021 called for more staff and mental health services at MCCC following two suicides at the Maui jail.

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Tommy Johnson declined to comment on the most recent death at Halawa, but Johnson said last month that too many mentally ill people are being sent to Hawaii’s correctional facilities.

Suicides in custody are a growing problem across the country because many of the mentally ill people being sent to prisons and jails don’t belong there, Johnson said last month.

A three years ago found that from 2001 to 2019, the number of suicides increased 85% in state prisons, and 13% in local jails. In Hawaii the state correctional system operates both prisons and jails.

Jails and correctional facilities have become “de facto mental health institutions because across the country a lot of those facilities have closed down,” Johnson said.