UH Community Design Center presents 'Breaking Cycles' community vision for OCCC replacement

The University of Hawaiʻi Community Design Center summarized a year‑long engagement that the center said included "120 talk story sessions, 18 site visits and listening workshops, 3 symposiums, 3 exhibits, 6 co‑design workshops, 5 community practice meetings." Kathy Hochar, one of the UHCDC principal investigators, told the joint Senate briefing the effort was designed to produce an independent community vision to inform the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's planning process.

Hochar said the UHCDC synthesized findings into a design framework and three proof‑of‑concept models for a replacement of the OCCC facility: a step‑up campus emphasizing graduated freedom, a community resilience center oriented to centralized behavioral care, and a community resource hub or village combining courtroom, diversion and reentry services. She said the engagement made clear community priorities: "a holistic health centered grama informed approach," stronger diversion and reentry investments, and design features that reflect Hawaiian values and support reconnection to family and community.

UHCDC recommended designing for flexible scenarios so parts of a project could be eliminated or converted to non‑correctional uses if investments in diversion and reentry reduce bed needs. Hochar also highlighted calls from participants for continued advisory groups and regular community exchanges to shape programming, and for collocating federally qualified health centers where federal subsidies could help underwrite on‑site care.

The presentation concluded with UHCDC urging that facility design and statewide system reforms proceed together: community members, health providers and justice stakeholders asked the state to lead multiagency coordination, dedicate staff and assessment tools, and tie diversion strategies to crisis services and long‑term treatment beds.