History of Education and Youth Punishment in Hawaiʻi.

• In Event: EHC-WG Panel 6: Youth Justice in Historical Criminology

Abstract

The processes of colonialism and forms of structural violence and inequality are embedded in youth institutions of control, such as education and juvenile justice. In this paper, I demonstrate the historical connection between education and youth punishment and control in Hawaiʻi, especially for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Specifically, I explore the ways in which punishment and control were prioritized for Native Hawaiian youth, especially if they were identified as “wayward” or “deviant” by not complying with plantation labor or education practices previously implemented by Christian missionaries, and later by the Hawaiʻi Board of Education. I argue that the colonial practices of punishment, control, and cultural erasure of Native Hawaiians are evident in the close connection and development of both the youth correctional facilities and the public schools in Hawaiʻi prior to the illegal occupation and overthrow of Hawaiʻi by the United States in 1893. I draw from historical documents found in the Hawaiʻi State Archives of the Hawaiʻi Board of Education founded in 1864 and the Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility founded shortly after in 1865. The findings from this study help provide a historical understanding of the current relationships between schools and the juvenile justice system in the lives of youth in Hawaiʻi

Author

• Sanna King, Mississippi State University