During a hearing in Honolulu’s federal court last week before Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield, the attorney representing Jacob “Jake” Smith, a convicted drug dealer and self-confessed member of the racketeering organization directed by Michael Miske, accused administrators of the Federal Detention Center (FDC) of being unable to protect his client from a series of assaults believed to be in retaliation for his 6-days of trial testimony that contributed to Miske’s conviction on 13 charges including murder, kidnapping, racketeering, and conspiracy.

Honolulu attorney Louis Michael Ching, who was appointed to take over Smith’s case last November, said Smith had been assaulted three times in the past four months, beginning just a day before he was scheduled to appear as a witness, and ending with another beating two days after Miske’s conviction.

Although Mansfield denied Ching’s motion that would have allowed Smith to be transferred to house arrest at the home of his parents, Ching’s disclosures provided an unusually unflattering assessment of security and management in the federal facility, which is more typically viewed as the “gold standard” for corrections administration, standing in stark contrast to state’s troubled prison system.

Just a few days later, during a follow-up status conference on Smith’s case, the FDC provided notice that Smith would soon be moved to another federal facility.

Neha Kahn, attorney for the FDC, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, told Magistrate Mansfield during a status conference on Monday that Smith “will be transported to another facility in short order,” according to minutes of the hearing.

Taken in context of the reported assaults, it would appear this transfer is indeed for Smith’s personal safety.

The FDC opened in 2001 near Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye Airport. It is designed to handle up to 992 inmates, although the average daily population over the past 12 months was 290, according to a 2024 federal audit.

When I began checking further, I found Smith had filed an earlier complaint in March 2022, alleging he had been wrongly sent to “the hole” the previous month based on a correctional officer’s false claim of drug use despite a negative urine test. “The hole” is what inmates call the Special Housing Unit, where they are held in solitary confinement in their cells for up to 24 hours a day, either for administrative reasons (such as protective custody) or as punishment for rule violations.

The incident report was later dismissed for lack of evidence, but Smith also said it wasn’t the first time he was wrongly punished.

And this is where it gets interesting.

Smith was among a group of inmates placed in the hole for “investigation of fighting” following what he called “the well-known July 12, 2021 riot,” according to his complaint.

Well-known? Perhaps among FDC inmates, but quick online check failed to turn up any public reports of a riot in the FDC in or around that date in 2021, or at any time, for that matter. Reference to the riot was incidental to Smith’s primary complaint, which provided no additional details, so I hesitated to take it at face value.

However, a bit of digging located two other inmate complaints also referring to the alleged incident and adding further specifics.

Reading through the complaints filed in federal court, it seems likely that they were not completely independent, and may have copied from a common source. There were also numerous legal deficiencies in the elements needed to

But generally, the judges’ orders did not deny an incident took place with up to 35 (or more) inmates fighting or that at least 20 inmates were sent to the hole as a result, nor did they address the underlying allegation that correctional officers condoned illegal gambling within the FDC, with or without the knowledge of top FDC officials. Of course, the judges role is to rule on the narrow legal claims, not to initiate investigations into the allegations made. On that basis, it seems fair to take a closer look at what has been alleged.

“Gang riot” allegedly triggered by gambling debt

The inmate complaints describe a volatile mix of rival gang members housed together in 5A, including members of domestic gangs (La Familia, USO, Murder Inc.) as well as international gangs (MS-13, Nothenos, Paiso’s, Soreno’s, and Tango’s) which allegedly created “an extremely dangerous environment.”

Eric Hurst, who at the time was held in unit 5A while awaiting sentencing for possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun, was sentenced in March 2023 to 63 months behind bars.

Hurst, who claims he had no gang affiliation, said in his complaint the fighting started after an inmate lost over $1,000 in a poker game. Hurst said he had “never participated in the gambling that goes on in the unit at large tables that frequently have 6-8 participants.”

Correctional officers “watch as tables of inmates play poker for substantial sums of money….The gambling tables can clearly be seen by overhead cameras as well,” according to the complaint. It alleges official “indifference” contributed to the riot.

Hurst alleged that a counselor in the housing unit told inmates at an orientation meeting, “we know you are gambling, just make sure you pay your debts and don’t get us involved.”

Hurst said he was watching television in front of cell 125 when “a group of 5 Paisa gang members attacked inmate (Kekai) Watanabe over the issue of gambling.”

“When innate Watanabe was attacked, one of the Paisa gang members shouted instructions up to the second tier of the unit for more gang members to join the fight and bring weapons,” according Hurst’s complaint later filed in federal court.

Hurst claimed that he remained seated but was attacked by three Paisa gang members wielding a combination lock placed in a sock and swung as a weapon (“lock in a sock”).

He said it took more than 10 correctional officers with pepper spray to end the fighting.

Hurst’s complaint said he was placed in the hole (the SHU or Special Housing Unit) for 74 days, although eventually released without penalties.

He alleges that none of the Paisa gang members or any others involved in the fighting were charged for the incident, and none received penalties, such as loss of “good time.”

Another complaint was filed by Kekai Watanabe, who Hurst identified as the inmate who was attacked first. Watanabe said he is affiliated with USO, the United Samoan Organization, which started as a prison gang but now boasts members in and out of prison, both locally and on the U.S. mainland.

Watanabe also spent months in the hole after the riot, and was later diagnosed with a broken coccyx, or tailbone, suffered in the beating. But when he complained about the pain and asked for medical treatment while in the SHU, Watanabe’s complaint says he told by staff “to stop being a cry baby.”

It seems surprising that an incident involving 30+ inmates fighting resulting in injuries could be hushed up and kept out of the public eye, so I’m reluctant to take these complaints at face value. On the other hand, I’ll be interested to see whether additional confirming information emerges in response to this post.

After gathering more information, I’ll check whether the FDC has any official or unofficial comment.