CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / NOV. 14
For one year, Waikiki Health has been assisting newly released inmates to transition successfully into communities through their Pu’uhonua Program. The program helps the inmates by obtaining necessary legal documentation, such as birth certificates and state IDs, and assisting individuals with applications to qualify for health and social benefits.
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To see a classic case of helping those who help themselves, look no further than Waikiki Health’s Pu‘uhonua Program.
The program assists newly released inmates to transition successfully back into the community, and judging from its caseload from the past year, the need and demand definitely exist.
Pu‘uhonua (“safe place for healing”) set out intending to help 480 prisoners between Oct. 1, 2017, and Sept. 30 — but instead, doubled that, with 970 prisoners going through the program.
Many Oahu prisoners are released with no home, no job and no crucial documents such as a birth certificate, Social Security card or other government ID. All that makes the already tough odds against them even tougher, in trying to re-enter society. Pu‘uhonua tries to even those odds by working with inmates before and after they are released from Oahu’s jails and prisons, by helping them get needed documents, health insurance, substance abuse treatment, jobs and housing.
The past year’s successes were buoyed by a grant from Hawaii Medical Service Association’s Community Grant Program; Pu‘uhonua already is hoping to secure more money to expand to the neighbor islands. Pu‘uhonua’s assistance has included an annual bus pass and $40 Goodwill gift card — for many of the ex-cons recently helped, that represents so much more.