108th ACSA Annual Meeting Proceedings, Open

Decolonizing Frameworks: A Cultural Design Resource for Corrections

Annual Meeting Proceedings

Author(s): Cathi Ho Schar, Nicole Biewenga & Mark Lombawa

Indigenous people are overrepresented in the criminal justice system throughout the world.1 In Hawai’i, the 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai’i subjected Native Hawaiian people (kanaka maoli) to the sufferings of colonization, that has likewise contributed to the disproportionate over-representation of Native Hawaiians in every part of the criminal justice system.2 In response, multiple task forces have called for a new vision for corrections that restores Native Hawaiian individuals to their families, communities, and the land (aina).3 In 2018, the State of Hawai’i Department of Public Safety (DPS) established a partnership with the University of Hawaii Community Design Center (UHCDC) to explore a new corrections model for Hawai’i, a restorative model that addresses and leverages the state’s unique social, cultural, ecological, and economic context. The center assembled a multi-departmental team of faculty, staff, and students from the School of Architecture, College of Engineering, and Social Science Research Institute, to develop different studies to inform this new vision. The School of Architecture’s scope evolved into the development of a Cultural Competency Framework aimed at “decolonizing” the state’s correctional system, understanding facilities, programs, and agency operations as an inseparable whole. This discussion follows the development of a Cultural Competency Framework, that leveraged three tiers of university activity: teaching, research, and outreach to also produce a Cultural Design Process and Resource, and Aina-based Design Strategies that ultimately aim at restorative cultural landscapes for incar-cerated individuals.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.108.141

Volume Editors

ISBN
978-1-944214-26-5