Winter 2006 Home   Newsletters

Spring 2007

May 2007

President's Message (Sue Irvine)
State Convention on April 28 (JoAnn Maruoka)
Sunshine Week 2007: March 11-17 (Carol Bain)
League Stand on Education Bills (Mary Anne Raywid)
Candidates for 2007 State Board
At the Legislature (Jean Aoki)
LWV-Hawaii Budget 2007-2008 (Jackie Parnell)
DC Voting Rights Fact Sheet
Chapter Reports - Hawaii (Marianna Scheffer)
Chapter Reports - Honolulu (Piilani Kaopuiki)
Chapter Reports - Kauai (Carol Bain)
Hawaii Coalition against Legalized Gambling (Grace Furukawa)

Chapter Reports - Hawaii

A committee has been formed to update the County Government Handbook. There have been several meetings on this topic in the Kona area. The last time the Handbook was revised was in 1992. Members met with County Clerk Casey Jarmon to discuss our plans for a new County Handbook.

Rampant development is engulfing Kona, and members who have served on various planning commissions are discouraged.

Our speaker at the January meeting was Marilyn Brown, who received her PhD from UH Manoa and is now an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Hawaii. The title of her presentation was "Motherhood on the Margins: Profiling Women on Parole in Hawaii." Using statistics, she confirmed what many of us knew or suspected: that incarceration is related to poverty, "minority" status, especially Native Hawaiian, abuse in the family, and addiction. Women can lose their family status while in prison because they can't meet their family responsibilities. These women lack mobility and cannot change the circumstances of their existence, particularly if they are mothers. Professor Brown concludes that:

  • Most women offenders have serous addiction issues

  • There is a strong link between childhood trauma, abuse, addiction, and crime

  • Most incarcerated women are there predominantly for drug and property offenses (Level C felonies)

  • Most are women of color (women of Native Hawaiian ancestry)

  • Most are poorly educated, possess few job skills, have little work history

  • Rehabilitation focuses on teaching about choices, not on changing the circumstances of life.

She quotes a police officer: "What we take for granted, they don't have."

Our annual general meeting will be in April. We will elect a new President, Vice President, and Secretary.

Marianna Scheffer
President

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