Coalition urges Hawaiʻi lawmakers to invest in public safety alternatives

The Reimagining Public Safety in Hawai‘i Coalition is calling on state legislators to shift funding toward community-based solutions rather than incarceration, releasing a set of budget recommendations that emphasize diversion programs, mental health care and supportive housing.

The recommendations, developed through discussions with law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, service providers and criminal justice experts, highlight opportunities to reduce incarceration by addressing what it calls the “root causes of crime.”

The recommendations include a pause on spending to build the new proposed “super jail” on Oʻahu, which critics say could end up costing the state $1 billion. Instead, the coalition is in favor of increasing funding for other initiatives that aim to improve youth development, mental health services and job training programs. The coalition also identified potential new funding streams for the state.

“The path to true public safety lies not in punitive systems rooted in implicit bias and misinformation, but in evidence-based, community-centered solutions that foster healing and collective well-being,” said coalition member Luanna Peterson.

The recommendations include expanding restorative justice practices such as ho‘oponopono, which align with Hawai‘i’s values of aloha, mālama, pono and kuleana. The coalition argues these approaches offer meaningful accountability and reconciliation.

Hawai‘i law requires diversion of individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders from jails, but the coalition says chronic underfunding has left the state falling short of that mandate. It urges significant investment in community-based treatment and supportive housing to break the cycle of incarceration.

“If locking up unhoused people was the solution to homelessness, we would have solved the problem a long time ago,” said coalition facilitator Liam Chinn. “Communities with living wage jobs, affordable housing, accessible healthcare and robust investment in youth are the safest by all measurements.”

The full budget recommendations and additional details about the coalition’s proposals are available online.