A simple lack of ladders on inmate bunk beds at Halawa Correctional Facility has cost state taxpayers a substantial amount of money.

Just earlier this month, a state circuit judge ordered the state to pay a former prison inmate $117,350 for a broken foot and subsequent medical problems he suffered after jumping off the top bunk in his cell at Halawa Correctional Facility in September 2004.

It's just the latest in a litany of inmate injuries related to the lack of ladders on bunk beds at Halawa.

Last year, the state paid six prison inmates $5,000 each for injuries they suffered after falling or jumping from bunk beds in their prison cells. A seventh inmate received nearly $6,000.

State Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy said yesterday that it is her understanding that the Halawa bunk beds have been retrofitted with ladders.

But Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna, in an April 5 ruling, found the state "grossly negligent" for not addressing the address the problem sooner.

"I can't imagine bunk beds with no railings, no ladders, inmates falling off, getting hurt, losing consciousness, breaking their bones, and nothing is done about it for year and years and years," McKenna ruled in a case brought by former inmate Rodney Herbert.

"If this was a private entity case, this case would call for punitive damages," McKenna said.

She also faulted the state for initially saying that it did not have separate records or "incident reports with respect to injuries caused by bunk beds," and then later discovering that it did in fact have such reports.

"That was very strange to the court," McKenna said.

The Herbert case was filed by private attorney John Rapp, who has pretty much cornered the market on behind-bars bunk bed litigation.

Last year he won a $5,765 settlement on behalf of another inmate, Christopher Nee, who claimed injuries in two falls from Halawa bunk beds. Nee had an arthritic hip and other medical problems that made it difficult to climb up and down the bunk beds, according to that suit.

Earlier this year, Rapp won another settlement of around $5,000 for a Halawa inmate who claimed to have suffered a bunk bed-related knee injury.

Another case is scheduled to go to trial next month on O'ahu and still another is pending on Maui, Rapp said.

Rapp said bunk beds have been fitted with ladders at Halawa, O'ahu Community Correctional Center and the Women's Correctional Centers on O'ahu.

But other facilities, including Neighbor Island lockups, still lack the ladders, Rapp said.