Kalana Ola Coalition for Compassionate Release

Kōkua to bring paʻahao home for dignified, complex medical and end-of-life care with ʻohana

The Kalana Ola coalition was formed in 2025 to assist paʻahao (incarcerated individuals) who may be eligible for compassionate or medical release. Kalana Ola means “freed and forgiven to heal,” signifying the compassion in releasing paʻahao who are elderly, near end of life, or critically ill. Compassionate release is rooted in humanitarian principles and aligned with Native Hawaiian values of aloha, mālama (care), and kuleana (responsibility to one another).

This relief is acutely needed for Native Hawaiian paʻahao, who are substantially over-represented in the Hawai’i prison system. This longstanding crises for Hawaiian ʻohana disrupts the pono and the perpetuation of ola through the strength of Hawaiian ʻohana.

The Kalana Ola coalition works together to pair paʻahao who are good candidates for compassionate release with advocates to represent them in the request process. The coalition also collaborates to support systemic improvements to compassionate release in Hawai’i.

Members of this coalition include:

ʻOhana Reunification for Dignified Care

Each year elderly and terminally ill inmates posing no risk to public safety die in jails and prisons. Compassionate or medical release can be a legal pathway to avoid that outcome. This process varies by state. In Hawaiʻi, incarcerated people may request an end to their imprisonment and return home to their families if they:

  1. are near end of life due to advanced age or terminal illness, or have a serious medical impairment, and
  2. pose little or no risk to public safety.

When appropriately granted, compassionate release allows people facing the end of life or managing complex medical conditions to receive appropriate care, with dignity, and with their ʻohana. Compassionate relief offers opportunities for family healing and is in the best interest of the public and the state. Correctional departments incur very high costs providing medically complex and end of life care. Those resources are better invested in other ways when incarceration is not necessary to protect public safety.

Hawaiʻi is one of few states that do not have a compassionate or medical release statute. Extensive efforts have been underway in recent years for legislative action that establishes clear, humane, and accessible rights and procedures for this kind of family relief. In the meantime, administrative rules and policies within the Hawaiʻi Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation provide a pathway for those that need it.

Requesting Advocacy Assistance

Paʻahao or their families can also submit a request for advocacy assistance using the FAMM intake tool available online here.

FAMM is not the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. FAMM and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation are both partner members of the Kalana Ola coalition. FAMM operates a multi-state compassionate release help program. FAMM will route requests for compassionate release legal assistance in Hawaiʻi to the Kalana Ola Coalition, which will work together to respond.

The Kalana Ola Coalition will seek to identify support for paʻahao that are good compassionate relief candidates, including:

  • Legal guidance: Helping individuals, families, and representatives understand eligibility criteria and navigate the release process.
  • Legal advocacy: Advocating for the reunification of elders and seriously ill clients with their ‘ohana so that their final chapter is surrounded by care, love, and cultural support.
  • Advocate coordination with health and social service providers: Coordinating medical documentation, care plans, and community support services necessary for release.
Press or Policy Inquiries

Press, policy, or partnership inquires for the coalition can be directed to Kalana.Ola [at] gmail [dot] com.

Contact

Contact the Coalition

Kalana.Ola [at] gmail [dot] com

Resources