All but one of the remaining Hawai'i inmates housed at the embattled Otter Creek Women's Prison in Kentucky are back in Hawai'i and are likely to remain close to home.

The state decided to remove the prisoners from the facility following allegations that 23 Otter Creek inmates, including seven from Hawai'i, were sexually assaulted by prison personnel.

State Department of Public Safety director Clayton Frank said 128 prisoners arrived back in Hawai'i on Monday. Fifty-nine are being housed at the Federal Detention Center near Honolulu International Airport; 69 are at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua.

Forty other inmates returned to Hawai'i last month. One other inmate was directly relocated to another prison on the Mainland.

"It was in our best interest to bring them home," Frank said. "We're not ruling out the possibility of exploring other correctional facilities provided they're closer to home, maybe on the West Coast."

Yesterday, a county judge in Wheelwright, Ky., indicted 54-year-old Otter Creek corrections officer Charles Prater on a charge of first-degree rape.

Prater is the sixth Otter Creek worker to be indicted on sex-related charges since 2006. The five others were each accused of misdemeanor sexual abuse charges. Four were convicted and the other is scheduled to go on trial this month.

Hawai'i officials are conducting their own investigation into allegations made by Hawai'i inmates.

The Otter Creek facility is run by Corrections Corp. of America, which is based in Nashville, Tenn.

The state has spent $50 million a year to house some 2,000 inmates at Mainland prisons operated by Corrections Corp., including $3.6 million for the inmates at Otter Creek.