Correctional Industries is a separate entity within the Department of Public Safety that creates jobs for prison inmates.

Men’s programs, for inmates at Halawa, include furniture making, printing, sewing and computer building and scanning.

The sewing shop is the second CI program for women at the Kailua facility. The first was a short-lived telemarketing program. Next month a pilot program will begin with Nalo Farms, with three inmates (who have community custody status) working on the well-known Waimanalo herb and vegetable farm.

CI is designed to help inmates learn skills that will translate into jobs when the men and women are released from prison.

The sewing program at CI is overseen by Roy Yamashita, who explained that the women need a leg-up because, "when they leave the system, sometimes no one wants to hire them."

They hope to change that with programs like Monica Gavin’s sewing shop.

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