Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 10, 1 October 2016 — Hawaiʻi Scraps English-- only Rule For Prisoners Following Lawsuit [ARTICLE]

Hawaiʻi Scraps English--only Rule For Prisoners Following Lawsuit

Submitted by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation The Department of Public Safety of the State of Hawai'i has rescinded a discriminatory and demeaning English-only mail policy in the midst of ongoing litigation filed by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. DPS' co-defendant in the case, Corrections Corporation of America, has yet to follow suit. Since at least 2007, DPS and CCA have eaeh had an English-only mail policy that prohibits prisoners, including those incarcerated out of state, from receiving letters written in the Native Hawaiian language ('ōlelo Hawai'i). In August, the DPS website was updated to reflect that all prisoners may now correspond in the Native Hawaiian language, as well as English. "My language, my blood, my way of life, and my religion are everything to me," Mr. Arthur Vinhaea, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, said. "Even though Hawaiian was forbidden at school when I was growing up, my 'ohana has done all they ean to keep the Hawaiian language alive. My 'ohana started a Pūnana Leo school on Kaua'i. My grandchildren go to Hawaiian immersion schools. They want to write letters in Hawaiian to me to perpetuate the language." The Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) filed the lawsuit suit on behalf of Mr. Vinhaca, a Native Hawaiian man whose grandmother, Katherine Kalaulahauole Nākāula, worked with other kumu to revive ancient hula and chants. NHLC's Litigation Director Sharla Manley and staff attorney Summer Sylva represent Mr. Vinhaca. DPS publicly rescinded the policy after making admissions in the lawsuit last week that it allowed

inmates to correspond in other languages such as Samoan, Ilokano and Japanese for years. Attorney Manley stated, "This abolition of the English-only policy is long over-due. Eor years, there have been reports that letters in Hawaiian from Hawaiian families to their loved ones behind bars have been eonfiscated by prison officials here at home and in Zkrizona. Now, almost 40 years after our state decided to recognize the Hawaiian language as an official language in our state constitution, it still took a lawsuit to push DPS to rescind its regressive policy banning the Hawaiian language." The lawsuit was filed in June 2016. Ms. Manley stated that the case is not over and the court must still resolve a number of other issues. For one thing, CCA's Eng-lish-only rule is still on the books. Mr. Vinhaca is under the jurisdiction of DPS, but he is incarcerated in CCA's Arizona-operated Saguaro Correctional Center. CCA a has regressive English-only policy that was enforced against Mr. Vinhaca, denying him and his family the ability to correspond with eaeh other, particularly his nieces and nephews attending Hawaiian language immersion schools. Mail is the most practical, feasible means for prisoners' families to communicate with men imprisoned at Saguaro. Although in-person visits are permitted, subject to certain restrictions, the cost and distance for family members to travel from Hawai'i to Zkrizona to visit their loved ones is more than restrictive. And while phone calls are permitted, rates charged by CCA ean be cost prohibitive. Accordingly, written correspondence is the primary means by whieh prisoners may receive eommunications from family members residing back home in Hawai'i. ■