Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 6, 1 Iune 2017 — Hawaiians have a voice in correctional system improvements [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiians have a voice in correctional system improvements

I I ouse Concurrent Resolution

H157, passed by the Legislature this Session, extends the life of the Correctional Iustice Task Force through 2018. This task force, created by House Concurrent Resolution 85 in 2016, convened under the leadership of Iustice Mike Wilson to study incarceration policies to improve Hawai'i's correctional system. The need to improve these policies is a cause that OHA has longadvocatedfor. In2010,OHA released the

study "The Disparate Treatment of Native Hawaiians in the Criminal Justice System." This report was a catalyst for legislation in the 2011 Session, enacted as Act

170, whieh created the Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force to formulate policies and procedures to eliminate the disproportionate representation of Native Hawaiians in Hawai'i's criminal justice system. The Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force convened regular meetings and held summits statewide to receive oral and written testimony. The result of these meetings, summits, and site visits, was the Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force report, issued in 2012. In the work of improving the correchonal system, it is important that we aloha andmahalo Renwick V.I. Tassill, akupuna we know and affectionately remember as "Unele Joe." Unele Joe, who was called home by Ke Akua this January, was a strong advocate for a rehabilitation model that teaches pa'ahao job and life skills that enable them to successfully reintegrate into their conuminities. My aloha to Aunty June and their 'ohana for all of Unele Joe's work. Unele Joe advocated the issue of a pu 'uhonua to the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs as a resolution in 201 1 . After the AHCC adopted Unele Joe's resolution at its convention, he took it to the Legislature, where it would become Act 117, signed into law by former Governor Neil Abercrombie in June 2012.

Governor David Ige would later tap

Unele Joe in 2013 to facilitate the advancement of the priorities of Act 117. As the Board of Trustees Chairperson, I am one of 1 1 members designated to serve on the Correchonal Justice Task Force. In the first meetings, the task force organized into five subcommittees: the Native Hawaiian subcommittee, the education subcommittee, the program subcommittee, the design subconmiittee, and

the faith subcommittee. I serve as co-chair of the Native Hawaiian subcommittee with task force member Shayne Kukunaokalā Yoshimoto, who represents Holomua Pu'uhonua, a eommunity group dedicated to carrying forth Unele Joe's vision. I extend my mahalo to Kukuna, and also to Tmstee Robert Lindsey, Kama Hopkins, and Kamaile Maldonado, for their leadership during the subcommittee's ineephon, and in maintaining continuity on this important issue. Mahalo to the members of Holomua Pu'uhonua and other community leaders who have been active supporters of the subconmiittee and task force. The Native Hawaiian subcommittee has held the only public hearing of the task force to date, held in September 2016. A eommon theme we heard from the community during our public hearing as well as town hall meetings held by the Department of Public Safety on the proposed new correctional facility is the need for culturally appropriate and identity-based programming for our pa'ahao. The Native Hawaiian subconmiittee is scheduled to reconvene our work this month, and we look forward to continuing to engage with our conmiunity. The full task force will also reconvene and begin its work to issue a report to the Legislatine before the start of the 2018 Legislative Session. With the extension of the Correchonal Justice Task Force, we have another year to have serious conversations and to take a hardline position on our recommendations for the Department of Public Safety, and I remain conmiitted to giving oin Native Hawaiian community a voice in this process. ■

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Joe Tassill

Cūlette Y. Machadū Chair, TrustEE Malaka'i and Lāna'i