Despite a mandate from lawmakers, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has made almost no progress in helping more people in Hawaiʻi’s prisons and jails get vital identification before they are released.
Between November 2024 and October 2025, about half of incarcerated people released from state prisons — more than 340 people — lacked the IDs needed to secure housing, obtain a job or open a bank account, according to a recent report to the Legislature.
Lawmakers passed a bill in April requiring the corrections department to help interested inmates obtain a driver’s license or state ID at least a year before they are to be released. The bill amended a 2017 law that required the department to inform people in custody that they can get assistance obtaining documents like a state ID, a birth certificate or social security card while incarcerated and moved up the date at which the department is supposed to start the process…