The Old Kauai County Jail

Informant: Male/ 65/ Portuguese ancestry

Location: Lihue, Kauai

The old county jail on Kauai, when it existed, was known by everyone on the island to be haunted. There were stories of bars slamming, mumbling, and even choking ghosts. In those days, there were only two guards on duty at all times, so if one of them took the day off, the rookie cops were sent in to be stand-in guards. Sometimes my dad was one of them.

The jail had two floors, and there would never be any occupants on the second floor, because that’s the floor that was haunted. Weird things could be heard coming from the second floor. Things that sounded like doors slamming, or dragging tin across the bars. The prison wasn’t always full, and sometimes there were no occupants at all. He said they used to threaten misbehaving inmates with incarceration on the second floor because everyone was so scared of it.

My dad himself heard bars slamming on the second floor, but upon inspection, found nobody. On nights when there was nobody in the jail, some of the rookie cops would get so scared they would sleep in their cars outside in the parking lot instead of staying in the jail. There have been no stories of the new jail that was built in it’s place. Do you think it may also be haunted?