Simoné Nanilei Kamaunu faced a challenging transition after exiting prison in 2022 with only a $500 check and no means to cash it. Her vital documents – a social security card and a driving permit – were lost or expired during her incarceration, rendering her prison ID useless outside the Women’s Community Correctional Center. Deprived of a state ID, she found herself unable to open a bank account, despite having earned the money from completing her GED while serving time for a parole violation.
Kamaunu lamented the lack of support, saying, “I had to hit the ground running and hustle myself,” reflecting the broader systemic issue within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Over seven years since a law mandated the department to assist inmates in obtaining necessary identification, there’s been little improvement in the number of individuals leaving prison equipped for societal reintegration. Between November 2023 and October 2024, almost half of those released from Hawaii’s state prisons lacked a valid state ID, the department’s data revealed. The situation was even more dire for jail releases, with approximately 95% lacking IDs.
Tommy Johnson, the department’s director, pointed to inmate reluctance as part of the problem, stating, “It’s not from our lack of trying; you can’t make them fill out the documents for a card.” He also mentioned issues in record accuracy and collaboration with government agencies as hurdles. For Kamaunu, it took roughly three months post-release to finally acquire the necessary ID to cash her check, just in time for holiday preparations. She criticized the system, claiming it “is setting us up to fail.”
The initially slow enforcement of the law results in significant numbers of individuals leaving prison without the identification needed to secure jobs, housing, or banking services. While over a dozen states have similar laws, Hawaii’s measures, enacted in 2017, explicitly instruct the corrections department to inform inmates about available help in acquiring IDs, birth certificates, and social security cards. Despite asking inmates at entry if they require these services, implementation faced numerous delays from sluggish inter-agency communications to lengthy equipment acquisition processes.
The Halawa Correctional Facility only began processing state ID applications in June 2022, years after the law passed, using a machine finally set up at the facility. In 18 months since, 150 inmates received IDs through this system, yet over 750 were released from state prisons without one during the same timeframe. Although $100,000 was allocated in 2022 to place ID machines in four additional correctional facilities, none have been installed. Inmates in other prisons must either wait until their release or a furlough to visit a DMV for an ID. The department awaited system upgrades from the Department of Customer Services’ Division of Motor Vehicles to procure machines with compatible specifications.
In the meantime, the department assists prisoners in obtaining birth certificates or social security cards, both prerequisites for a state ID post-release. However, delays persist in issuing social security cards, with more than half of the recently freed prisoners lacking them during the same period. A recently established agreement with the Social Security Administration started addressing these issues, but not without initial “hiccups”, including pandemic-related office closures.
A proposed legislative measure aims to accelerate the process of securing vital documents by initiating earlier during incarceration. Senate Bill 224, introduced by ten legislators, endeavors to start documentation applications sooner than the current law’s mandate of within a year of release. Johnson noted the department’s existing efforts align with these requirements in state prisons, but suggested starting earlier in short-term jails wouldn’t significantly impact due to the limited detention duration. He remarked, “There’s very little we can do with respect to trying to get it. We can get the application in, and then we need a forwarding address where to send the document when it comes in.”
For many formerly incarcerated individuals, the issue remains a source of frustration. Kamaunu questioned the efficacy of passing a law without proper enactment, saying, “You expect us to have integrity and be on it, but … what kind of example are you leading by?”
