Please describe how your agency is structured:

The Attorney General is the chief legal officer and law enforcement officer of the State of Hawaiʻi. The Department of the Attorney General is organized into 20 legal services divisions and six public services divisions, each with unique responsibilities for assigned departments or agencies. While there is often overlap among divisions to accommodate issues that impact multiple departments or agencies in the State, in general, each division is able to develop an expertise in its own area of law or service. The structure allows the Department to best use its resources to meet the legal needs of the State. One of the six public service divisions is the Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division. 

The Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division (CPJAD) serves as the central agency to provide the Attorney General with the information and resources needed to address crime and crime prevention. The division accomplishes this by: (1) researching crime issues and reporting comprehensive crime statistics for the State; (2) utilizing federal and state funds and non-financial resources to address crime problems and criminal justice system issues; (3) planning, developing, and implementing education and crime prevention programs to promote community involvement in crime prevention efforts; (4) developing and maintaining a computerized juvenile offender information system; (5) assisting in locating, recovering, and reuniting missing children and runaways with their families; and (6) supporting the Hawaii Sexual Assault Response and Training program and the statewide standards for responding to sexual assaults.

Please list the federal and state grants your agency administers.

• Byrne Earmark

• Byrne JAG

• Byrne SCIP

• Career Criminal Prosecution Program (state funding)

• Coverdell - formula

• John R. Justice Grant

• RSAT

• SJS

• State Sexual Assault Services (state funding)

• SORNA

• VAWA- SASP

• VAWA - STOP

• Victim Witness Assistance Program (state funding)

• VOCA Victim Assistance

Please list your top three current priority or focus areas.

1. Ongoing stakeholder engagement with county, state, federal and non-profit entities ranging from strategic planning on the use of grant funds, coordinating of sexual assault services, providing real time juvenile justice data and crime data, and responding to reports of missing children.

2. Improving victim-centered services: Strengthening coordinated services and stabilizing funding.

3. Capacity Building: Providing training that benefits our stakeholders.  For example, Grant Writing training, training for new police recruits on responding to missing children cases, and train-the-trainers on substance misuse prevention.

What is the main thing you would like other NCJA members to know about your agency?  

CPJAD assists the criminal justice system agencies to improve service delivery and to promote the involvement of communities in the prevention of crime.  The Division facilitates and coordinates with several multi-disciplinary groups to address bullying, Internet safety, underage drinking, and fraud prevention. The Division also manages three advisory committees/boards on the use of the VAWA-STOP, Byrne JAG, and SCIP that the Attorney General chairs. The Division’s Grants and Planning Branch administers federal grants to state and county criminal justice agencies and non-profit victim service providers; active awards for fiscal year 2024-2025 totaled $46,722,189.