Building Continuums of Care: Lessons from Hawai’i’s Youth Justice System

Bloomberg Fellow Nehali Vishwanath and her team at the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) have been examining how Hawai’i supports young people involved in the juvenile justice system through continuums of care and community-based alternatives to youth incarceration. 

Funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the US Department of Justice until April 2025, the project was a collaboration between Hawai’i’s Office of Youth Services and the University of Hawai’i. “Through our partnerships, we have interviewed hundreds of folks on each island,” Vishwanath said. “State and county justice partners, judges, community-based organizations, and youth and families, are sharing with us what strengths they think we should build on and what gaps need to be addressed.” 

The findings from their interviews highlight the dramatic transformation Hawai’i’s juvenile justice system has undergone in the last decade. “[Juvenile justice services] went from sending kids to their correctional facility for small issues to now only having about 30 or so youth in custody,” she said. “For a group of islands with a population of 1.4 million, that’s an incredible improvement—around an 80 percent reduction from its peak.” 

This progress, she explained, was driven by legislative change and deep collaboration among courts, the Office of Youth Services, community-based organizations, and residents themselves. But the success has also shifted the focus of the juvenile justice system in Hawai’i. “While we have seen these major shifts, the young people who are still in custody are the youth with the highest needs,” Vishwanath said. “And that’s one of the major focuses of our assessment—how do we work with and uplift these young people to help them find success as well?” 

The research reinforced a central insight: “Kids do best when they’re able to stay at home in their community and with their family.” Detaining youth, especially those from neighboring islands who must travel to O‘ahu to be placed in custody, can remove them from everything familiar and stable. “Community-based residential programs allow these young people to stay in supportive environments while still getting the tools to work through challenges,” she said. 

A major finding of the interviews was the overrepresentation of Native Hawaiian and Micronesian youth in the juvenile justice system. “Not only are these groups arrested at higher rates, but they also go deeper into the system when compared with white youth,” Vishwanath said. To address this, many local organizations are turning to culturally grounded interventions. “We heard one community-based representative say, ‘Best practices in the Western world don’t work for our kids. We want something culturally appropriate for our families.’” 

One example stood out to her: a small program on the Big Island where youth learn indigenous farming practices from a husband-and-wife team. “They learn how to take care of the land, rotate crops, and understand the rhythms of farming,” she said. “It’s also a mentoring opportunity; a way for youth to build trust with supportive adults and reconnect with their culture.” 

Vishwanath noted that each island’s culture and structure shape its strengths and challenges. “In rural areas like Hāna on Maui, the sense of community is incredibly strong,” she said. “There’s this tight-knit, collaborative network that prevents minor issues from becoming bigger ones.” For her, these differences highlight why solutions must be local and community-informed. 

“What's happening in Hawai’i is likely to look different in major cities like New York,” she said. “Tailoring that approach to the young people, their communities, and families is really the best way forward.” 

The team published a full report and returned to Hawai’i earlier this year to share their findings and recommendations with local partners. “Hawai’i has just been ahead of the curve in juvenile justice reform,” Vishwanath said. “When we keep young people close to their families, their culture, and their community, we give them the strongest chance to thrive.”