State Department of Public Safety officials today released a draft environmental assessment on the proposal to reopen Kulani Correctional Facility, about 20 miles south of Hilo. The prison has been closed since 2009.

The draft EA, dated Nov. 9, is posted on the agency’s website and you can read it here.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie hopes to transfer about 200 prisoners from other Hawaii facilities to Kulani, making room to bring back 200 male prisoners from facilities on the mainland. There are about 1,700 prisoners housed out of state, mainly in Corrections Corp. of America facilities in Arizona. Several lawsuits have been filed against the state and CCA by families of inmates who have been killed in those prisons.

The plan to bring Hawaii inmates home is part of Abercrombie’s Justice Reinvestment plan passed by the Legislature earlier this year.

Read the latest Civil Beat coverage of the issue here.