Citing concerns over COVID spread among Hawai’i inmates, volunteers generate bail funds for pretrial detainees
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Hawaii (KITV) — As Hawai’i prisons continue to grapple with COVID-19 outbreaks, volunteers with mutual aid network Coronacare Hawai’i is raising funds to bail out pretrial detainees.
“It’s not charity, it’s people helping people in need and contributing to lifting up the community so that we can solve these problems together rather than waiting around to be saved,” said Kawena Phillips, a volunteer with Coronavirus Hawai’i.
Organizers disagree with how the Department of Public Safety has been handling the pandemic, and hope the effort will help stop the spread of the virus among detainees.
“It’s infuriating because there are so many ways we can combat this virus with community-focused, community-oriented solutions, and instead, the solution that has been given time and time again is to further criminalize people of color,” Phillips added.
On Friday, the Department of Public Safety reported 16 active Coronavirus cases at the O’ahu Community Correctional Center, four at the Halawa Correctional Facility, 162 at the Waiawa Correctional Facility, and 123 Hawai’i prisoners at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona are active cases.
In honor of La Ku’oko’a, or Hawaiian Independence Day, CoronaCare is teaming up with the Hawai’i Community Bail Fund to bail out 10 Native Hawaiian detainees from the O’ahu Community Correctional Center.
According to the University of Hawai’i, Native Hawaiians make up more than 40 percent of the state’s incarcerated population.
“The carceral system is unjust, it unfairly targets minorities, particularly black people, or Native Hawaiians, or Pacific Islanders, or Micronesians. It criminalizes us for various things, whether that’s defending ‘aina, whether that’s poverty, whether that’s homelessness,” Phillips said.
To help smoothly reintegrate detainees, Phillips said volunteers will give them supplies once released, including prepaid cell phones, bus passes, and gift cards to purchase clothing.
CoronaCare plans to post bail for the first round of detainees on Monday, with dismissal set for Tuesday.
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