We envision a new hub that mobilizes diverse perspectives, leadership, and knowledge to reform criminal justice.
Why us?
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) is a Native-Hawaiian Place of Learning and indigenous-serving university , responsible for providing access to public higher education for all Hawaii’s residents. The UHM team is led by Camille Nelson, dean of the UH William S. Richardson School of Law, and Jonathan Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio, dean of the UH Hawai’inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, supported by the UHM College of Social Sciences and the University of Hawaiʻi Community Design Center, in collaboration with members of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, Honolulu Police Commission, Correctional System Oversight Commission, Hawaiʻi Health and Harm Reduction Center, Law Enforcement Assistance Diversion (LEAD) Hui, Hina Mauka, YWCA O’ahu, Community Alliance on Prisons, Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, and Hawai’i International Film Festival, along with State Representative Sonny Ganaden, State Senator Donovan Dela Cruz, and filmmaker Ciara Lacy. This broad leadership coalition includes vital state sectors and the teaching, research, and service capacity of UHM. Our ability to build a community-based justice and healing infrastructure will draw upon and strengthen our network of diverse potential partners that already provide social, cultural, health, education, employment, ecological restoration, agricultural production, and faith-based services to the community.
Partnering organizations
Interagency Council on Intermediate Sanctions
The Interagency Council for Intermediate Sanctions is a PARTNERSHIP between the following: Judiciary, State of Hawaii; Department of Public Safety, State of Hawaii; Department of the Attorney General, State of Hawaii; Department of Health, State of Hawaii; Office of the Public Defender, State of Hawaii; Hawaii Paroling Authority, State of Hawaii; Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City & County of Honolulu; Honolulu Police Department, City & County of Honolulu. The vision of the Interagency Council on Intermediate Sanctions is the reduction of recidivism and the prevention of future victimization by adult offenders. Beginning in 2002, state and county government agencies undertook an exciting challenge to reduce recidivism in Hawaii by 30 percent. Learn more…
Hawaiʻi Department of Public Safety
The mission of the Hawaiʻi Department of Public Safety is to uphold justice and public safety by providing correctional and law enforcement services to Hawaii’s communities with professionalism, integrity and fairness. Learn more…
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law
The William S. Richardson School of Law is a collaborative, multicultural community preparing students for excellence in the practice of law and related careers that advance justice and the rule of law. The law school develops highly qualified, ethical professionals through excellence in teaching, scholarship, and public service. We embrace Hawaiʻi’s diversity and values and recognize a special responsibility to our state and the Pacific region. We lead in environmental law, Native Hawaiian law, and Pacific-Asian legal studies. Learn more…
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge
Established in 2007, Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge is Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language, Ka Papa Loʻi O Kānewai Cultural Garden, Native Hawaiian Student Services, and the Dean’s Office. Hawaiʻinuiākea is the first new school or college established on the Mānoa campus since 1982, and it is the only college of indigenous knowledge in a Research I institution in the United States. The mission of the Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge is to pursue, perpetuate, research, and revitalize all areas and forms of Hawaiian knowledge. Learn more…
University of Hawaiʻi Community Design Center
UHCDC is a teaching practice that provides a platform for engagement, research, planning, placemaking, and design positioned to operate at the intersection of the university, community, government. The center gathers UH faculty, staff, students, and partnered professionals across UH campuses, departments, and professional disciplines to work on public interest projects. Learn more…
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Social Sciences & Social Science Research Institute
The Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) conducts and supports interdisciplinary, applied research that addresses critical social, behavioral, economic, and environmental problems primarily in Hawaiʻi and the Asia Pacific region. Learn more…
Community Alliance on Prisons
CAP originally formed as the Rethinking Prisons Working Group in the mid-1990’s. A group of churches, social workers, scholars, researchers, community organizations, formerly incarcerated individuals and families of the incarcerated came together to discuss what was happening in Hawaiʻi. Since then CAP has sponsored and co-sponsored many other conferences and workshops focusing on evidence-based solutions that have been well researched and proven to work in other places. CAP aims to educate the larger community about justice issues in Hawaiʻi. Learn more….
Hawai’i Correctional System Oversight Commission
Independent oversight of the State's correctional system ensures transparency, supports safe conditions for employees, inmates, and detainees, and provides positive reform towards a rehabilitative and therapeutic correctional system. Learn more…
Hawaiʻi International Film Festival (HIFF)
As the vanguard forum of international cinematic achievement in the Asia-Pacific region, Hawai‘i International Film Festival (HIFF) endeavors to recognize new and emerging talent, promote career development and original collaborations through innovative education programs, and facilitate dynamic cultural exchange through the cinema arts. Learn more…
The Hawaiʻi Health and Harm Reduction Center
The Hawaiʻi Health & Harm Reduction Center serves Hawaiʻi communities by reducing the harm and fighting the stigma of HIV, hepatitis, homelessness, substance use, mental illness, and poverty in our community. HHRC focus on those disproportionately affected by social determinants of health, including but not limited to: people living with and/or affected by HIV, hepatitis, substance use, and the transgender, LGBQ and the Native Hawaiian communities. We foster health, wellness, and systemic change in Hawai’i and the Pacific through care services, advocacy, training, prevention, education, and capacity building. Learn more…
Hina Mauka
For over 50 years, Hina Mauka has been committed to assisting people with mastering their addictions through encouragement and evidence-based practices. Hina Mauka helps individuals overcome their dependence on alcohol and other substances through a mutual effort that builds long-lasting freedom from addiction. Applicants who are pregnant and or intravenous drug users will be given first priority for treatment. Learn more…
Kawailoa Youth & Family Wellness Center (the Hawai’i Youth Correctional Facility)
Nestled at the foot of Olomana in Maunawili in the ahupuaʻa of Kailua, is the Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF). It is an unusually tranquil setting for a juvenile correctional center, but HYCF Administrator Mark Kawika Patterson sees it as a perfect puʻuhonua – a place of healing. After nearly 100 years in Kailua, HYCF is undergoing a physical and spiritual transformation, rebranding itself to become the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center and to realize a new vision for Hawaiʻi’s juvenile justice system. With decades of experience in corrections, Patterson was troubled by the fact that Hawaiʻi’s prisons were filled with Hawaiians, almost all of whom had a history of family trauma. Learn More…
LEAD (LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTED DIVERSION) Honolulu
Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) is a community-based diversion program for people whose criminal activity is due to behavioral health issues. LEAD is a pre-arrest diversion program. In LEAD, low- level offenders are diverted from arrest by law enforcement by immediate referral to harm reduction based, individualized case management. Learn More…
LEAD (LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTED DIVERSION) Hui
A major component of LEAD HNL is the engagement and coordination of services with key stakeholders. The “LEAD Hui” is a group of over 30 organizations who meet one time per month to coordinate the implementation of LEAD. Members include ACLU – Hawaiʻi Chapter, ALEA Bridge, CARE Hawaiʻi, City and County of Honolulu, Community Alliance on Prisons, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaiʻi, Harm Reduction Hawaiʻi, Harm Reduction Services Branch, Hawaiʻi State Dept. of Health, Hawaiʻi Appleseed, Hawaiʻi Health & Harm Reduction Center, Hawaiʻi Substance Abuse Coalition, Helping Hands Hawaiʻi, Hina Mauka, Honolulu Police Department, Institute for Human Services, Ku Aloha ola Mau, Mental Health America of Hawaiʻi, Partners in Care, PHOCUSED, State Office of the Public Defender, The Salvation Army ATS-FTS, Susannah Wesley Community Center, UH Office of Public Health Studies, We are Oceania, Waikiki Health. Learn More…
The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaiʻi
There is a growing nationwide consensus that the law enforcement approach to eliminate drug abuse has not worked. Meanwhile, the exploration of alternative approaches has been hampered by misinformation and an absence of intelligent debate. We hope that the educated opinions and perspectives we foster will help both policy-makers and the general public decide for themselves whether change is warranted and what changes would be most beneficial for Hawai‘i. The Drug Policy Forum of Hawai‘i is a non-profit organization founded in 1993 to encourage the development of effective drug policies that minimize economic, social, and human costs, and to promote the consideration of pragmatic approaches to drug policy based on scientific principles, effective outcomes, public-health considerations, concern for human dignity, enhancing the well-being of individuals and communities. Learn more…
Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
The mission of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) is to perpetuate, through legal and other advocacy, the rights, customs and practices that strengthen Native Hawaiian identity and culture. NHLC carries out its mission by integrating native values into the practice of western law and jurisprudence. NHLC work ensures that Native Hawaiians can maintain their integrity and their values as an independent native people. Going to court, though only one means of engaging in that pursuit, is how NHLC strives to achieve that vision. NHLC focuses on helping Native Hawaiians to navigate, and prevail in, the legal system. Although this system is often hostile to Native Hawaiian values, it has shown great promise in restoring justice. Learn more…
Domestic Violence Action Center
The Domestic Violence Action Center (DVAC) has been serving survivors of family violence for thirty years. DVAC’s mission is a commitment to addressing domestic violence and other forms of harm through leadership, unique services, legal representation, survivor and system advocacy, community education and social change work. DVAC serves survivors of IPV, and their families, through a comprehensive array of inclusive, client-centered services, unduplicated in the community. The agency’s work is also rooted in the importance of educating professionals, raising community awareness, facilitating community building and community strengthening, advocating for system reform, offering media commentary, and providing technical assistance to business, government, health care practitioners, schools and churches. Learn more…