About #FernhurstWomen

In 2020, the Correctional Work Furlough and Halfway House Program for Women Inmates on Oʻahu, housed at YWCA Fernhurst in Makiki, was set to close.

Read on to learn more about our campaign #FernhurstWomen to keep the doors of this community furlough program for women open.

Watch the videos below to hear from amazing women who have made a successful re-entry from incarceration back into our community.

With the closure of the program, the State of Hawaiʻi will lose the only community-based work furlough program for women outside of prison. The current program participants now at YWCA Fernhurst will return to the Women’s Community Correctional Center (WCCC). The transition is to be complete by the end of the month.

YWCA Oʻahu has been operating the program since July 2015. Prior to that, T. J. Mahoney & Associates, Inc., a Las Vegas-based nonprofit, developed and ran the program for more than 20 years. Last year, Mahoney Hale – the only federal halfway house program for men and women in Hawaiʻi run by T.J. Mahoney – closed its doors.

YWCA Oʻahu has offered 23 beds at its Fernhurst transitional housing facility, welcoming women directly from WCCC. Fernhurst is their very first “home” after incarceration. The program is designed to be gender-responsive, trauma-informed and culturally sensitive, addressing the unique needs of women inmates. It also supports re-entry and rehabilitation, a model encouraged nationwide. All program participants receive wrap-around services, from life-skill coaching to job readiness and job retention. During the height of the COVID crisis, Fernhurst maintained full operations of the work furlough and transitional housing programs. Over the last five years, the program has served almost 200 women at Fernhurst, with about 80 percent of them successfully completing the program. More than half of the Fernhurst residents are Native Hawaiian. More than three-quarters of them are mothers.

Of those who successfully completed the program between 2015 and the first quarter of 2019, 84 percent have remained out of prison, a recidivism rate of 16 percent.

This page will provide news, videos and other resources for our community members to share in support of the Work Furlough program.

The #FernhurstWomen campaign was highlighted in our new YWCA O‘ahu Fall 2020 printed newsletter!

Click here or on the image of the article below to read the full story.

Updates

Breaking Update: July 1, 2020

YWCA O'ahu Appreciates an Overwhelming Support of the Community for its Work Furlough Program

Six Women Who Were Sent Back to the WCCC Safely Returned to Fernhurst This Morning

HONOLULU, HI — The six women who returned to the Women’s Community Correctional Center (WCCC) last week all rode a van together from Kailua this morning to resume their lives at Fernhurst in Makiki. Their safe transition was completed as the WCCC’s adult correctional officer (ACO) and the Fernhurst staff processed all the necessary paperwork to officially mark the women’s return to Fernhurst.

“As the WCCC’s van pulled to the front of Fernhurst building, we could hear the women screaming with excitement in the van even though all the windows were closed,” said Noriko Namiki, CEO of YWCA O'ahu.

“The Fernhurst staff showed up to work early this morning to welcome the women back to our facility. It’s been one week since they left Fernhurst and everyone at YWCA O'ahu was pleading for their return. Seeing the six women walking back into Fernhurst was a joyous occasion for all of us.”

Since the community found out about the potential closure of this program due to budgetary constraints as explained by the Department of Public Safety (PSD), YWCA O'ahu has received overwhelming local support.

The state Senate and House of Representatives each issued letters in support of the program. City Council members Ann Kobayashi and Carol Fukunaga and Kauai Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar also made statements to urge the state to keep this community-based program.

“We appreciate all those who made calls and wrote to our decision makers to save this program. We are grateful to the House leadership for passing a bill to restore funding for the program. We sincerely hope the Senate and the Governor will be in full support of this bill,” Namiki said.

“We also thank the Department of Public Safety Director Nolan Espinda for supporting this bill. Both the PSD staff and the WCCC staff including Warden Eric Tanaka worked quickly to make the women’s transition happen. Many professionals had to get involved for this move and I am grateful to all of them.”

As the women returned to Fernhurst, they placed their personal belongings in their newly assigned rooms and gathered in the dining room for a welcome-back breakfast. The Fernhurst staff and other Fernhurst residents (non-work furlough) joined the celebration.

“I am so glad I am finally home again,” one of the women said. “I can pick up my life and move on. I still feel like I am dreaming but I know this is not a dream. It’s really nice to be out.”

The community-based work furlough program allows women to prepare themselves for the living conditions they will experience post incarceration.

“This type of environment makes it easier for them to reenter society. From job readiness to family reunification – they can access resources in the community that support their work,” Namiki said.

“YWCA O'ahu looks forward to continuing its reentry work in partnership with the Department of Public Safety. We can accomplish a lot as we work together.”

Updated Statement/Press Release: 06/24/2020

Women Residents at YWCA Fernhurst Correctional Work Furlough and Halfway House Program Taken Back to WCCC Before the June 30 Deadline

A vehicle from the Women’s Community Correctional Center (WCCC) in Kailua picked up six participants in the community-based work furlough program at YWCA Fernhurst early this morning (June 24, 2020) to return them to the WCCC.

The YWCA staff and other residents saw the women off as they rode in the van, each holding a bag of personal items the organization purchased for them the night before, including fresh underwear and footwear.

“All the women have been making progress in the program. Three of them have been employed in town and the other three participated in our job readiness program and were actively job searching. Returning to the WCCC and joining the Project Bridge Program (Work Furlough Program at WCCC) will be an unfortunate setback for those women,” said Noriko Namiki, YWCA O‘ahu CEO.

“Women transitioning from the WCCC greatly benefit from a program in a community setting, not in the prison. Most women in the program have experienced trauma in their lives. Taking the individuals back into the prison for no particular reason feels like a punishment and could only add more trauma. Even though our program and the Bridge Program are both work furlough, each plays a different role and they are not the same.”

On June 1, YWCA Oʻahu received a Notice of End of Contract from the Department of Public Safety (PSD) saying the furlough services would be provided by the staff of the WCCC. The Department cited “an unprecedented financial situation because of the COVID-19 pandemic” as a reason for the program closure. It also called this contract termination a “temporary measure.”

“PSD and YWCA Oʻahu have worked together over the last five years with the common goal of helping women in reentry. As the department values this program, I hope the state leaders will find a way to continue the program,” Namiki said. “I urge Governor Ige to release his discretionary funding from the CAREs Act Relief Funds to save Hawaii’s only community-based program helping women coming out of incarceration.”

Four other women in the program moved to the transitional housing program Homebase, also housed at YWCA Fernhurst. The staff will continue to help those women remain employed and find affordable stable housing.

“This is not just about one nonprofit losing a government contract with a single month’s notice. Although we have been running this program for the past five years, this program has been in existence with a proven success record for a total of 27 years. A program like this needs a proper facility, qualified staff and a gender-responsive curriculum specifically for this population,” Namiki emphasized. “Once a program like this goes away, it will be years before anything like this can be rebuilt. YWCA Oʻahu raises additional funding on its own to provide wrap-around services for women from life-skill coaching to job readiness and even job retention. This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for women exiting the WCCC.”

During the height of the COVID crisis, YWCA Oʻahu made a conscious choice to keep Fernhurst open. Closure of the building would have meant that women in the work furlough program might return to WCCC and women in the Homebase program available to program graduates could immediately become homeless. The organization carried additional costs as a result of that choice.

“Just like other businesses in the community, our organization has been hit by COVID-19. We canceled our annual fundraiser due to the pandemic, which resulted in a net loss of nearly $200,000. We had to furlough some staff and eliminate a few positions as we try to weather this crisis,” Namiki said. “We are not in a position to hold the facility for a contract that may or may not come through. We need the state’s leadership to make the right decision in a timely manner to invest in the future of these women now.”