The Department of Public Safety (PSD) has implemented a new inmate identification card program, with the help of the City and County, Department of Customer Service, Motor Vehicle, Licenses and Permits and the State Department of Transportation (HDOT). This program provides REAL State IDs for inmates in custody who wish to obtain one, in accordance with Act 056, SLH 2017. The law was specifically created to address a main roadblock offenders face soon after release from custody: the lack of certified identification documentation.
“Legal identification is required for most basic needs such as: applying for State financial assistance, housing, medical coverage and to secure employment,” said Tommy Johnson, PSD Deputy Director for Corrections. “When I came on board as Deputy Director for Corrections in late 2020, one of my first priorities was to make this program a reality. Thanks in large part to the agreement with the DOT and the City and County, offenders are now eligible to order a REAL ID State ID prior to release”.
“HDOT appreciates PSD leading the coordination that went into this program to ensure that people reentering Hawaii’s communities have the documents they need to do so successfully. Throughout the process, REAL ID standards remained in place to provide the necessary identity safeguards for consistent and secure IDs,” said Hawaii Department of Transportation Deputy Director for Highways Ed Sniffen.
Currently, PSD has one machine at the Halawa Correctional Facility (HCF) that remotely connects to the City and County system, to take an inmate’s picture and capture their signatures. The City and County then processes the information and notifies the facility when the inmate’s new State ID is ready for pick-up. The facility staff pick up the State IDs from the City and County office, store them in the inmate files and issue them to inmates upon release from custody.
The City and County Department of Customer Service, Motor Vehicle, Licenses and Permits will be upgrading their equipment in the coming year. Once the city’s upgrade is complete, PSD will upgrade the current equipment at HCF and purchase additional machines for the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua, Oahu, and at the Hawaii Community Correctional Center in Hilo, Hawaii and the Maui Community Correctional Center in Wailuku, Maui, respectively.
In addition to applying for a REAL State ID prior to release, PSD recently began issuing free bus passes to eligible exiting offenders, with plans to expand this public transportation offering at facilities statewide.
