There are 140 security cameras, stun fences with razor wire, and inmates who would rather be anywhere else.

"This facility--they are more strict so its zero tolerance," said Emilito Aguinaldo, in prison for promotion of drugs.

Saguaro Prison is home to about 1,400 Hawaii inmates and almost 500 more live at Red Rock right next door. Hundreds of Hawaiians are living in the middle of the desert in Eloy, Arizona.

"I'd rather do my time back at home," said Tiolu Lono, who is serving ten years.

"At present time our inmate population exceeds our capacity in Hawaii," said Tommy Johnson, of the State Department of Public Safety. "To return them to Hawaii at this point would create inhumane conditions."

There are several ways inmates can stay in touch with the islands-- by letter, telephone, and video conferencing.

Every Saturday, Red Rock prison hasabout 50 video visitations.

Saguaro has even more with a monitor set-up in each housing unit. Inmates are allowed 15 minutes a month to see their families. For inmate Charles Bright, it's been a long time.

"How often do you get to speak with them?," asked KGMB9 Reporter Sabrina Hall.

"It's my first time," said Bright.

"In how long?," asked Hall.

"In four years," answered Bright.

That's four years he hasn't seen his 14-year-old daughter.

"She's grown up," said Bright. "She's gotten way bigger. Being this far away from home is hard."

Nuuanu Baptist Church on Oahu hosted the video visitation for his family. It's one of five churches in Hawaii that use volunteers to make those meetings possible. The state just upgraded the technology from analog to digital.

"Can you hear me now?," asked Bright of his daughter.

But still there are some technical problems.

"They only give us 15 minutes and I don't feel like that is enough time, you know what I mean?," said Lono.

Lono is serving a ten year sentence for burglary and terroristic threatening. He says phone calls home are 25 cents a minute, while inmates earn an average 32 cents an hour.

Lono said the price to call home is steep and the luxury is few and far between.

"Your family is the most important thing while you are doing time," said Lono. "Your time can be good, sometime it can be bad, but up here the majority of the time is all bad."

"If we are really interested in having people successfully reintegrate into the community, family support is integral. It's paramount," said Carrie Ann Shirota, a rentry specialist.

Shirota works for a non-profit in Maui. It helps offenders reintegrate into society.

She said between the price of phone calls, limitations to the video conferencing, and in-person visits, the Arizona prisons are not doing enough to keep Hawaii prisoners in touch.

"Visitation isn't as easy as the correction officials claim it to be," said Shirota. "In fact, one of the men shared that his mom traveled 18 hours and that she was denied visitation with him--and this was his mother!"

The State said the inmate probably didn't follow proper procedure to notify the facility 15 days in advance of his mother's visit.

Whatever the reason, Bright said family is the only thing he's got.

"The family is the biggest one," said Bright. "When you get out, when you lose contact with them, what else you get?"

The states adds that the 25-cent phone call cost is lower than at most prisons, and said it's trying to double the number of video conferencing sites for families in Hawaii.

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