Thursday, January 30, 2025
Aliʻiōlani Hale, Supreme Court
417 S King Street, Honolulu
5:30-7:00 PM (HST)
The Hawaiʻi State Judiciary’s Committee on Equality and Access to the Courts (CEAC) and the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center are pleased to present this kickoff event for the Judiciary’s Equitable and Sustainable Futures Speaker Series.
Five public programs are scheduled from January through May 2025 to build pilina (connection and collaboration) between stakeholders across the justice system in public conversation with the goal of influencing change in law, public policy, and institutional operation. This kickoff program is cosponsored by the Judiciary’s Office on Equality and Access to the Courts and the Hawaiʻi State Bar Association Civic Education Committee, in honor of Civil Liberties & the Constitution Day.
Program 1: Assessing Hawaiʻi’s Justice System: Addressing Over-Incarceration, Disparities, and Pathways Forward
The State of Hawaiʻi faces growing challenges in addressing over-incarceration due to limited funding and resources. Hawaiʻi’s current carceral system is overburdened, characterized by disparities in treatment and accommodation based on race, class, gender, age, and disability, and often resorts to transferring inmates to out-of-state facilities. All of which can have long-term impacts on incarcerated individuals, their families, criminal justice personnel, and our greater community.
In Hawaiʻi’s Supreme Court Courtroom, a panel of experts will assess these challenges citing data, legislation, and personal experience, shedding light on opportunities to create a more equitable legal and correctional system. The discussion will highlight the importance of working across agencies and departments to promote justice, and will include updates on new developments in law and policy, providing valuable insights into ongoing efforts to improve the state’s justice system.
This programming series is a follow-up to CEAC’s Racial Equity Speaker Series that occurred virtually between January and May 2021 (access recordings here).
Featured Panelists:
Moderator: Lauree Anne De Mattos
Makalika Naholowaʻa
Makalika Naholowa’a is an attorney and the Executive Director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, the preeminent Native Hawaiian law practice in Hawaiʻi. Makalika has extensive experience handling intellectual property and indigenous cultural property matters. She previously was an Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft and an associate with Perkins Coie LLP in Seattle. A stalwart contributor to the legal profession and nonprofits, Makalika sits on the boards for the National Native American Bar Association (NNABA) as the Immediate Past President; the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) as Vice Chair; and as a member at large for the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce, American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), and Women’s Fund of Hawaiʻi. Makalika is also a Hawaiʻi Access to Justice Commissioner and an appointed member of the American Bar Association’s Center for Innovation Governance Council. Makalika holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.S. in Mathematics from Arizona State University.
Erin Harbinson, PhD
Erin Harbinson is Director of the Criminal Justice Research Institute, which is administratively attached to the Hawaiʻi Judiciary and tasked with bringing together data and research to help the state evaluate the criminal justice system. Prior to joining the research institute, she was a research scholar for the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School where she led projects studying probation and parole. Dr. Harbinson has worked as a policy analyst for the Council of State Governments Justice Center conducting technical assistance for states implementing justice reinvestment legislation. She received her PhD in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati and worked for the University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute. While there, she traveled to correctional agencies and courts across the country to conduct trainings on risk assessment and evaluate correctional programs.
Her research interests include criminal justice policy, risk assessment, and improving the measurement of performance metrics and outcomes in criminal justice. Dr. Harbinson has authored several technical reports helping criminal justice agencies use data to inform their policymaking. She has published research on parole, corrections, risk assessment, white-collar crime, and cybercrime in journals such as Criminal Justice and Behavior, Journal of Crime and Justice, Criminal Justice Studies, and European Journal of Probation.
Wookie Kim
Wookie Kim is the Legal Director at the ACLU of Hawaiʻi, where he works to defend people’s civil rights and civil liberties. Among the issues Wookie works on are the criminalization of poverty, police misconduct, bail reform, reproductive freedom, gender equity, mass incarceration, and freedom of expression. Wookie has also been a Lecturer in Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, where he has taught first-year legal writing and about the criminalization of homelessness. Before joining the ACLU of Hawaiʻi, Wookie was an associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP in Washington, D.C. Wookie also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Catherine C. Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
Wookie received a B.A. in Ethics, Politics and Economics from Yale University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Outside of work, Wookie trains for 100-mile trail races and enjoys exploring the trails and beaches of Hawaiʻi with his wife and daughter.
Dr. Jamee Miller
Dr. Jamee Māhealani Miller is the Co-Founder and President of ʻEkolu Mea Nui, which seeks to transform Hawai‘i’s justice system through Native Hawaiian cultural practices and values. She has dedicated her entire professional life to working with Native Hawaiians, and through all of her professional success, Dr. Miller has made her ʻohana a top priority. Unforeseen personal circumstances brought her to the work of justice reform in Hawaiʻi and the creation of ʻEkolu Mea Nui—named for her son ʻEkolu.
Dr. Miller has held positions at the Queen Liliʻuokalani Trust—where she increased her learning and practices in indigenous methodologies towards healing—and now serves as Regional Director on Oʻahu for another aliʻi Trust. Dr. Miller also started a child abuse prevention program in Waimānalo to service Hawaiian ʻohana and keiki, where she led a team of multi-disciplinary professionals to strengthen local families’ child-rearing practices.
Dr. Miller has a Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern California, a Master’s in Social Work, and Bachelor’s in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is a licensed clinician with the state of Hawai‘i. Dr. Miller is also a student of hula with Hālau o Ke ʻAʻaliʻi Kū Makani. She enjoys spending time with family and friends.
