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March 2007
Looking Outward
by John Cannizzo
The Kauai County Correction Center (KCCC) is on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Island chain. KCCC is a state facility that also functions as the county jail. About 150 women and men with sentences from months to 10 years or more are incarcerated.
Driving along the Kuhio highway from Kapaa to Lihue past golf courses and tourist hotels, the facility is on the right - a green area which was once a swamp. It is nestled among palm trees surrounded by gardens ponds and fish hatcheries. A mountain ridge of the volcanic range which formed the island rises up behind the compound.
There is no perimeter fence around the facility and only a simple kiosk manned by one correction officer at the entrance. The penalty for crossing the highway without authority is five years. Warden Wagatsuma aims for sustainable self-sufficiency in as many areas as possible.
Horticultural therapy is part of Lifetime Stand - a program at the jail that uses gardening, military/martial arts-style discipline and self-awareness to meet goals of retribution, restitution and productivity.
Lifetime Stand uses rules. It has been pointed out by Rice and others that inmates adhere and respect rules when their goal is to give structure rather than impose conformity. Lifetime Stand offers offenders redirection in their lives through commitment. They are encouraged to examine criminality, drugs and family. Truthfulness, and the other elements that influence peoples behavior, are core issues and can lead to self-awareness.
Almost everyone in Kauai does some kind of planting. It is not necessary to include a classroom component to the work. Education here is done informally, hands-on. These exchanges form a shared body of knowledge, in keeping with the Hawaiian custom of passing on understanding within a family or community context.
The afternoon grows late. It gets humid, the Kona wind comes up; garden hoses dance in the wind. Torrents of tropical rain fall on the highway as I drive back to Pam's mother's house.
“This is where I like to be -- in Kauai," my mother-in-law will say, “you folks should move here." Tomorrow we will pound mochi in the old Japanese way to make the sticky sweet cakes that everyone eats at New Year.
** All photos by John Cannizzo
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