About 80 Hawai'i women prison inmates boarded an airplane in Colorado yesterday for a trip to the small rural town of Wheelwright, Ky., where they will be housed in a prison run by Corrections Corporation of America.

The women had been held for the past 14 months in the Brush Correctional Facility in Brush, Colo., a private prison run by GRW Corp. that was plagued by problems including allegations of sexual misconduct between staff at the prison and eight inmates from three states, including Hawai'i.

The inmates are among 1,828 Hawai'i convicts who are housed at privately run prisons on the Mainland because there is no room for them in Hawai'i prisons.

Howard Komori, who supervises the contract monitors for Hawai'i, said the problems at Brush may have been a consideration in moving the women, but that primarily prison officials wanted to transfer the women to a state that accepts higher-security inmates than Colorado authorities would allow in private prisons there.

Hawai'i will now be able to transfer higher-security "close custody" inmates to Kentucky, Komori said. Previously, the state had to house those prisoners at the women's prison in Kailua.

Colorado Department of Corrections officials launched investigations into Brush Correctional Facility earlier this year that resulted in a number of criminal charges against staff and inmates in Colorado.

Two prison employees were indicted on charges of alleged sexual misconduct with inmates, and two more prison workers were charged along with five inmates in connection with an alleged cigarette-smuggling ring.

Brush Warden Rick Soares resigned in February, and was later indicted as an alleged accomplice in one of the sexual misconduct cases.

In March the Colorado Department of Corrections revealed that five convicted felons were allowed to work at the prison because background checks on some staff members had never been completed.

Colorado authorities later released an audit that was highly critical of the prison, and contract monitors from Hawai'i reported the prison failed to comply with its contract with the state in a number of areas.

GRW officials have said they made a variety of management and other changes at Brush since the problems began.

Hawai'i paid GRW Corp. about $52 per day per inmate to hold women prisoners in Colorado, and Department of Public Safety spokesman Michael Gaede said the state will pay the same amount to CCA in Kentucky under an interim one-month contract.

The Hawai'i inmates will join 400 women inmates from Kentucky at the 656-bed prison.

The Kentucky prison will offer educational classes, rehabilitation programs and more extensive drug treatment than was available at Brush, Komori said.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.