SOME time today, in a hard, narrow wedge of a cell on the fourth level of Halawa Correctional Facility, prisoners Roy Toney and Steven Loya will celebrate Christmas. Pulling metal footlockers out from under the bottom bunk, Loya will pull out a package of Keebler cookies that he's been hoarding. Toney will pull out a tiny Christmas tree. The tree is made of cardboard cut out with dental floss. Relatives wrote letters on green construction paper, which Toney stuck to the cardboard with a glue made of rice, poi and toothpaste.
Decorations are bits of colored paper torn from magazine ads.
The star is made of shiny foil from cigarette packages. Other prisoners will stop by to marvel at Toney's tree, which he handles with the reverence reserved for the Holy Grail. Loya will open the precious package of cookies, and they'll eat them, every one, chewing slowly so each will last longer. It's Christmas, and everyone celebrates the best they can. By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin Inmates pose in front of a module they decorated for the holidays, above.