Joseph Tauilemua, a 20-year-old inmate held at the O'ahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi, slipped away from the facility on Wednesday morning without a shirt or shoes, and Honolulu police are asking anyone who spots him to call 911. Tauilemua is described as a Samoan male standing about 5-foot-8 and weighing roughly 135 pounds, with short black hair; he was last seen near OCCC wearing dark-colored pants and a wristband on his left hand.
According to a public notice from Honolulu Police, the escape was reported to officers at approximately 9:45 a.m. Wednesday. Investigators have not said publicly how Tauilemua got off the grounds, and it remains unclear whether search teams have pinpointed any potential hideouts for him on Oahu.
If he is captured, Tauilemua could face a charge of escape in the second degree, a Class C felony carrying up to five years in prison under Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 710-1021, according to Justia Law.
OCCC's Long History of Security Lapses
Wednesday's escape adds to a troubled record at OCCC, a Kalihi jail built in 1975 with an original design capacity of 628 beds. As of a January report, the facility housed an average daily population of 925 inmates — about 152% of that original capacity — according to Correctional News.
Security gaps at the jail have drawn scrutiny before. A March 2023 inspection by the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission found major lapses at OCCC, including vehicle sally port gates left open near the location where an inmate had previously died during an escape attempt, per Honolulu Civil Beat.
Wednesday's incident is also not the facility's first escape. In June 2014, OCCC saw two inmate escapes within six days, including one medium-security inmate who broke through an Annex 1 restroom ceiling and cut through the perimeter fence line, Correctional News reported at the time.
Overcrowding Pressures and Efforts to Ease Them
OCCC's custody operations now fall under the Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which replaced the state's former Department of Public Safety on January 1, 2024, under Act 278. The reorganization shifted law enforcement duties to a separate agency while DCR focused solely on facility operations, custody, and rehabilitation, according to Gov. Josh Green's office.
Roughly 21% of OCCC's population — nearly 200 people — were held on technical probation violations as of January 2025, per an analysis from the Prison Policy Initiative. Corrections officials had separately moved in January 2024 to transfer female pretrial and short-term offenders to the Women's Community Correctional Center, freeing up a 140-bed dormitory at OCCC to ease crowding among male inmates, according to Corrections1.
Push for a $1 Billion Replacement Jail
The oversight commission also reported that a 67-year-old inmate died at OCCC in January following a medical emergency, underscoring the group's continued monitoring of conditions inside the jail, per the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission. State planners have continued updating designs for a roughly $1 billion replacement jail in Halawa with more than 1,000 beds and expanded rehabilitation space, a project Hoodline covered amid local pushback over its fortress-like design.
