HAWAIIAN PRISON POPULATION AS HIGH AS 70%
Why are there so many Native Hawaiians in prison?
What's being done about it?
MauiTime Magazine -
January 4, 2007
Why are Native Hawaiians overrepresented in prison?
It's a simple question, but it doesn't have a simple answer.
Ask the experts and you'll get answers ranging from "oppression" to "poverty" to "lack of motivation."
There are colonization theories and there are cultural theories.
At this point, Native Hawaiians own most of the top misery indices in Hawai`i.
These include high percentage in prison, high infant mortality, high rates of illness, low educational attainment, low income-level, high unemployment and high rates of drug addiction and alcoholism....
...RaeDeen M. Keahiolalo Karasuda, a doctoral candidate working on these questions with the University of Hawai`i, emphasizes that the roots are vast and deep, but says locking Hawaiians up is a colonization mechanism.
She says Hawaiians are a very resilient culture and have been practicing civil disobedience for over a hundred years now.
Her estimate, derived from many prison visits and research work, is that Hawai`i prisons' realistic Native Hawaiian population today is actually closer to 70 percent....
Read The Story Here -http://www.mauitime.com/story.aspx?story_id=2495
