Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice

05/08/2026

Please join the Reimagining Public Safety in Hawaiʻi Coalition (RPS) for a free dinner and screening of the award-winning documentary 13th. RPS is a group of community organizations and individuals focused on investing in upstream solutions to end mass incarceration and the use of criminalization to address social issues.

RPS is hosting free dinners and documentary screenings across Hawaiʻi from May 15-21. Since slavery was abolished, criminalization has been used as a tool to incarcerate and detain Black, Brown, and immigrant communities. The documentary event series will explore the racialized history of the U.S. prison system and foster a community dialogue about the future of Hawaiʻi's public safety system. After the screening, attendees can share their reflections, prioritizing the voices of people who have been incarcerated or worked in the criminal legal system.

Join us for a free dinner and screening of the documentary 13th to learn about the history of the U.S. criminal legal system.

05/08/2026

Excellent recording of five people who spent time in prison, and mostly work now with others for their successful reentry into the community, sharing what can improve the system--May 6, 2026 Hawai‘i Supreme Court, Ali‘iolani Hale--big mahalo Kimmy Takata for facilitating and organizing and to Mark Patterson for seeing the potential in these women when he was warden at the women's prison.

This public program was held at the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, presented in partnership by the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Cent...

05/06/2026

Please call: ask Senate President Kouchi (808) 586-6030 and House Speaker Nakamura (808) 586-6100 and ask that they position HB 1628 HD2 SD1 for COMPASSIONATE RELEASE of incarcerated people for a Final Vote on Friday, May 8, 2026. It is humane and will save the state millions of $. Mahalo.

04/30/2026

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/real-talk-on-reentry-lived-experiences-and-opportunities-for-change-tickets-1988451068674?aff=oddtdtcreator
Kimmy Takata, MA, and long time HFRJ college scholarship recipient, will facilitate ths panel of five people who have been incarcerated and now do reentry work. Sure to be an excellent learning experience for all!

Five speakers with lived experience of incarceration, successfully reintegrated back into community, discuss improvements to reentry.

03/08/2026

https://en.ilsole24ore.com/art/victimlessness-does-not-block-restorative-justice-AIZ5dkoB
RJ is for everyone in the community affected by incidents of wrongdoing—not only those who were harmed. RJ is also for those who caused harm and are remorseful. Sexual abuse of children can NEVER BE CONDONED. But giving a person who caused harm the opportunity to take genuine responsibility to address the consequences of what they did and the opportunity to try and make things right, as much as possible—as this Italian court found—is vital. It benefits everyone, even those who were harmed and want no part of RJ, which is completely understandable and always their decision. In cases of serious harm, this does not mean the person who caused it is simply free from accountability, confinement, and their behavior forgotten or even forgiven (forgiveness is an entirely separate matter). The safety of those harmed and the broader community is always a priority, and their needs must be addressed, even when the person who caused harm takes responsibility, and the harmed person does not participate.

The case of a child subjected to sexual violence: reintegration as a priority. Absence of compensation and recognition of the fact also irrelevant

02/28/2026

"The suppression of restorative justice has never been about evidence; it has been about control. Punitive systems centralise authority in the state; restorative systems redistribute it toward communities, victims and those responsible for harm. If governments are serious about community safety, they must decide whether justice remains a mechanism of control or becomes a shared practice of repair." Jane Anderson

Decades of 'tough on crime' policy have expanded prisons while narrowing reform. Restorative justice has been repeatedly constrained not for lack of evidence, but because it redistributes authority away from the state.

02/01/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIDa6_kiQvA
Mark Patterson discusses how restorative justice has helped reduce youth in carceration in Hawai‘i with Sen. Schatz.

At a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) questioned Mark Patterson, Chair of the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commissio...

01/24/2026

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/bernadette-giacomazzo/tommy-lee-walker-black-man-exonerated-white-woman "A reinvestigation by the Dallas County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit, the Innocence Project, and Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project uncovered extensive misconduct. The review also tied Walker’s case to a broader pattern of wrongful convictions during [district attoreny Henry] Wade’s tenure."

Tommy Lee Walker was executed in 1956 after being wrongfu...

01/06/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkozXxXOPp8&t=43s
❤️Kamehameha student Kalamakū Crabbe's 10 min film placed second in the 2025 National History Day awards👏🏽

2025 National History Day - 2nd Place Winner, Documentary CategoryProduced by Kalamaku Crabbe

12/05/2025

https://hawaiifriends.org

Please see our OPEN LETTER to the POTUS, US Depts of Defense & State and all US Congress Members concering the bombings and killing of people in the Caribbean that is posted on our home page of our website.

Aloha & Welcome Hawai`i Friends of Restorative Justice (HFRJ) is an educational entity that works to help individuals and organizations live cooperatively & peacefully. HFRJ provides education, training, and program development for schools, courts, hospitals, prisons, government agencies, NGOs, and....

11/19/2025