Hawaiʻi took a chance on something called Drug Court back in 1995 to tackle the rising cases of crime around drug abuse.
Under the late Chief Justice Ronald Moon, the idea was born to find a better way to handle those convicted of drug crimes and to reduce recidivism.
Thirty years later, with the data to show its success, there have been spinoffs. A Veterans Treatment Court and a Mental Health Court sprang out of the desire to do better than just lock people up.
Matthew Viola is the first Circuit Court judge in charge of Oʻahu Drug Court, and Greg Uwono is the administrator for the Specialty Courts. The Conversation spoke with them about the programs in place to deal with the substance abuse issues often underlying why people end up behind bars in the first place.
Viola said that the Drug Court program has graduated about 1,200 to 1,300 participants since it began.
“A lot of our participants have lost some degree of hope,” Viola said about Drug Court. “They've created lots of problems for themselves and the people they care about, and with a lot of hard work and interventions and treatment, they start to turn their lives around, so that they end up becoming not just law-abiding citizens or net contributors to our system, rather than being net takers, but they heal, they heal relationships with their family, and they're good, productive, law-abiding citizens.”
Uwono said that he’s valued watching participants reconnect with their communities and families.
“Just seeing them in the community later, thanking us, and seeing that they're working and getting back in their lives and having a life again, those are the things that make it worth for us to continue going," Uwono said.
Viola explained that many people in the criminal justice system suffer from past trauma, so the current focus is on building out the court’s trauma response.
“I think the issue of trauma is true across the board, in all the specialty or treatment courts. We know generally, probably about 80% of people in our courts have some form of trauma, often dating back to their childhood, and when that is unaddressed, it leads to worse outcomes.”
He added that the Drug Court program demands a lot from participants, such as employment requirements, curfews, and more.
“Our focus is to make sure that as long as they're living out in the community, that they're living out in the community safely. And if they're not, there will be consequences,” Viola said.
“We do hold our participants accountable in a lot of ways, including that they can be sent to jail for violations, and we intensively supervise them. … So I think to the extent that there's a perception that these are programs where people get to live in the community when they shouldn't be there, that's not correct.”
Viola said that witnessing participants turn their lives around has been one of the most gratifying aspects.
On Tuesday, The Conversation will learn about the Girls Court and Women's Court programs.
This story aired on The Conversation on Sept. 15, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
