Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Home Page
Watch Now! Maj. Joanna-Jacklyn “Jojo” White started as a temporary hire 28 years ago and after a number of promotions she now serves as Chief of Security at the Halawa Correctional Facility. She enjoys her job and encourages others to apply as an Adult Corrections Officer.
Our Mission
The mission of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) is to provide a secure correctional environment for comprehensive rehabilitative, holistic, and wraparound re-entry services, including culturally based approaches, to persons sentenced to our custody and care with professionalism, integrity, respect, and fairness. Our goal is to reduce recidivism and enhance the safety and security of our communities.
Our Vision
To transform Hawaii’s unified correctional system, which has been historically perceived as a punitive model, into a rehabilitative, restorative, and reentry focused system, that reduces recidivism and promotes safer communities.
Our Values
Rehabilitative sustainability through evidence-based programs, including culturally based approaches, to rebuild and restore lives and the community. Transparency and accountability will remain the hallmark of the department to inspire trust in our employees, from those in our custody and care, and the community we serve.
Our Goals
To protect members of the community and their property from victimization, caused through criminal actions, by managing secure institutions to detain individuals ordered into our custody and care, and provide a safe and humane correctional setting for our employees and offenders. Also, to provide rehabilitative, holistic and reach-in wraparound reentry services to reduce recidivism and achieve better outcomes for offenders. To reach these goals, the DCR will coordinate legislation as necessary to collaborate with community and cultural organizations and where appropriate, to compensate victims of crime.
Our Responsibilities
Over 95% of those who come to our correctional facilities will eventually be released. Most have challenging backgrounds, but they all have great potential. We strive to make the best use of the time we have with them. We want them to see the possibilities for their lives.
At first, these individuals may not see in themselves what we can see, but our hope is that each one makes that pivotal course correction, begins to turn their life around, and be ready to seize every opportunity to lift themselves to a new place, rejoin their families, and start their lives afresh.
That’s why we assess each individual in our care, devise personalized plans, and provide holistic support services, all to ensure a successful re-entry into the community. We offer a spectrum of services and opportunities, and with ongoing support from the state, we can continue to invest in their lives. Better physical facilities, expanded programs, and additional supportive services are all important to create an optimal environment to help them flourish.
Seizing New Opportunities
We encourage inmates to see new possibilities for their lives and provide the education and training to help them realize their full potential. We invite you to be a part of our team to help with this important mission.
Come and Work with Us
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is seeking qualified team members to fill a variety of positions. If you have a heart for people and want to join us in making a difference, we welcome you to apply.
Apply NowRehabilitation Programs
Every person in our custody has a unique story – often marked by challenging beginnings and difficult environments. Our goal is to help them rewrite their story. We offer a full spectrum of programs.
Program DescriptionsCreating an Optimal Environment
Providing a physical space for inmates to flourish is critical to rehabilitation. Investing in our state’s correctional facilities is as important as investing in the lives of our inmates.
Seven Benefits of Reentry Programs
Effective reentry means individuals who are incarcerated are able to return to the community and find suitable employment, stable and appropriate housing, support their family, and become a contributing member of our community.
Research has shown that when programs address the known risk factors for reoffending and are delivered with integrity, they lower rates of recidivism (reincarceration) and victimization because the risk factors of criminal behavior are reduced.
Here are seven benefits of quality re-entry programs:
- Individuals decrease their reliance on illegal methods to sustain a living;
- With education and job training, individuals can pay their fair share of taxes, make restitution and provide child support and still be able to afford their day-to-day, out-of-pocket expenses;
- Individuals have greater opportunities to secure appropriate housing, lowering the rate for houselessness;
- The programs help decrease or eliminate the “lag time” an offender waits for confirmation of coverage for medical and/or mental health services, leading to the decrease of or elimination of the need to self-medicate or commit a new crime;
- Re-entry programs decreases the number of disruptions to familial relationships caused by incarceration and increases the time offenders have with their families to get re-acquainted, mend “fences,” become stronger, secure additional support and heal from trauma;
- Re-entry programs serve as intervention to decreases the rate of intergenerational incarcerations; and
- Re-entry programs save money in the long term because they decrease the number of offenders being re-incarcerated in Hawaii’s jails and prisons and this could help alleviate overcrowding and better public spending (State’s taxpayers currently pay approximately $190 million annually).
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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is committed to ensuring that its website and available documents are accessible to people with disabilities. If you would like to provide feedback on site accessibility or to request documents in alternative formats, you may contact: Patrick De Costa, Acting Statewide ADA Coordinator, at email [email protected].
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