The Hālawa Correctional Facility staff and volunteers decorated the facility courtyard with colorful adornments, transforming it into a festive Christmas-themed area where incarcerated fathers reunited with their children.
HCF, in collaboration with Keiki O Ka ʻĀina (KOKA) Family Learning Centers, hosted a special holiday Keiki Day for nine fathers, 19 children and 14 caregivers.
For more than three hours, fathers savored every moment with their children playing games and participating in arts and crafts facilitated by volunteers. Families decorated Christmas ornaments, stockings and reindeer headbands together.
Keiki Day is a special occasion at HCF, as it is an incentive for eligible fathers who exhibited good behavior and have completed a parenting class. The event is also significant because fathers can have physical contact with their children.
Generally, all in-person visits at HCF are non-contact where inmates would communicate with their loved ones through glass partitions at the facility’s visitation area.
During Saturday’s event, fathers and their keiki also enjoyed lunch of pizza, pasta, chicken wings, shave ice and granola parfait.
Fathers performed verses from the song “Silent Night” in both English and Hawaiian as well as in sign language. Fathers also gave their children a holiday gift bag filled with new toys to bring home.
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Tommy Johnson said the event could not be possible without the collaboration and support from community partners.
“Today’s Keiki Day event is successful because of the teamwork between facility staff and KOKA to ensure fathers have a memorable time with their children,” Johnson said.
This is the third Keiki Day event that HCF hosted this year. The facility hosted its first ever Keiki Day in April 2025 for Easter and the second in June for Father’s Day.
HCF Warden Shannon Cluney said, “Keiki Day events serve as motivation for fathers to complete parenting classes so they can physically reconnect with their children.”
KOKA Executive Director Momi Akana said, “Keiki Day lets incarcerated fathers hold on to the most important part of who they are — their love for their children — and gives keiki the priceless reassurance that their dad hasn’t disappeared from their world.”
“When those bonds are protected, hope rises, healing begins and fathers are less likely to return to prison,” Akana said.
Event photos and footage, courtesy of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Keiki O Ka ʻĀina, are available at the following link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x0BDvLWaWEz5UHlFViFTCepjgEhKAEgb?usp=sharing.
