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Two managers at a private Arizona prison that houses inmates from Hawaii quit the facility with complaints of poor management, inadequate facilities and lack of staffing.

Two days after the managers abruptly left their jobs, staff members at the Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy inadvertently opened security doors Aug. 3, releasing seven inmates from their cells. One inmate was injured in a fight and another had to be subdued for refusing to return to his cell.

The employees who quit the prison, addiction treatment manager Michael VanSlyke and principal Rich Stokes, explained their departures in e-mails to Shari Kimoto, Hawaii Department of Public Safety mainland branch administrator.

They didn't tell Tennessee-based Corrections Corp. of America, which runs the Saguaro facility, why they were leaving.

"They essentially walked out," said Steve Owen, spokesman for CCA. "Their leaving was not expected."

In the e-mails, Stokes said upper management at the facility spies on staff, controls all communication with the outside and degrades inmates.

Water runs into cells when inmates take showers because the drains are higher than the surrounding floors, and the air conditioning system frequently fails, he said.

Staff members are often locked in or out of their units because doors can't be opened because there aren't enough correctional officers, Stokes said, adding that many of the officers who are there are overworked and undertrained.

VanSlyke's e-mail said Saguaro doesn't have adequate facilities to treat inmates and will never qualify for inpatient licensing as required by Hawaii's contract with CCA.

Neither Stokes nor VanSlyke filed formal complaints about conditions before resigning, Owen said.

Both were hired for their subject-area expertise, and neither had any prior experience working in corrections, Owen said.

"It's just one of those things where it didn't work out," he said.

Hawaii's Department of Public Safety is sending a team to Arizona this month for a full inspection. An audit team including Deputy Director of Corrections Tommy Johnson was already scheduled to be in Arizona last week, said spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy.

Johnson will check programs at Saguaro, employee training records, staffing and security features at the facility, McCoy said.

The $95 million, 1,896-bed medium-security prison opened in June to house only prisoners from Hawaii. As of last week, there were 696 Hawaii inmates housed there, McCoy said.