First Circuit (Oʻahu) Probation Conference 2024

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Sixty-one newly hired probation officers were sworn-in by Chief Judge Jeannette Castagnetti at the First Circuit Probation Conference. Chief Court Administrator Lori Okita and Deputy Chief Court Administrator Dwight Sakai presented the new team members with lei and certificates of appointment to the position of probation officer.

HONOLULU - Judiciary staff and partners from the State Department of Health (DOH) gathered at the Koʻolau Ballrooms & Conference Center in Kāne'ohe for the 2024 First Circuit (Oʻahu) Probation Conference. The Aug. 27-28 conference was designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills needed to enhance public safety through increasingly effective case management. They heard from national and local experts on the latest developments in community supervision best practices.

The staff from the Client Services Division partnered with the DOH Adult Drug and Alcohol Division (ADAD) to organize the two-day event to build on the professional development and training which began at the 2022 and 2023 Statewide Drug Court conferences.

First Circuit probation officers joined with specialty court staff from the Mental Health, Veterans, and Drug Court programs, and probation administrators from every circuit to engage in discussions with the presenters.

Guest speakers were:

• Major Mike Lambert, Training Division Commander with the Honolulu Police Department
• Vanessa Matthews, Director of the Treatment Court Institute, a division of All Rise
• Jacqueline Van Wormer, Ph.D., Director of Research for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals
• Hon. Kim McGinnis, Chief Judge, Pueblo of Pojoaque Tribal Court and project director for Pojoaque's Sober Living/Re- Entry Program
• Bree Derrick, Deputy Director of the Idaho Department of Correction
• Tia Roberts Hartsock, Executive Director of the Office of Wellness & Resilience, Office of the Governor, State of Hawaiʻi
• Kumi MacDonald, Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Hawaii and co-chair of the Honolulu Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
• Heather Lusk, LCSW, Executive Director of the Hawaiʻi Health & Harm Reduction Center and co-chair of the Honolulu Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
• Joseph Turban, M.D., Medical Director at Kū Aloha Ola Mau
• Randall Kaipo Like, Certified Substance Abuse Counselor with Kū Aloha Ola Mau and MAT/Cultural Clinical Supervisor

They made presentations on a variety of topics, including:

• Gambling, Drugs, and Ghost Guns
• Law Enforcements Role with Treatment Courts
• Probation Trends
• Trauma Informed Care for Probation Officers
• Risk, Needs, and Responsivity
• Evidenced Based Practices Probation Services
• Medication Assisted Treatment
• HPD's Crisis Intervention Team

Conference organizers conveyed special thanks to event co-sponsor ADAD for their financial support, as well as Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald and Judge R. Mark Browning (ret.) for providing opening remarks at the event.