Hawaii Policy Research Series · Island Security Policy Institute · 2026
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waitlist — with beneficiaries waiting decades for land entitlements — is producing housing instability that drives Native Hawaiian overrepresentation in both the juvenile justice system and adult corrections. Land policy is public safety policy.
Examines the public safety implications of Native Hawaiian land rights policy, specifically the DHHL waitlist crisis, documenting its contribution to housing instability, youth justice involvement, and community safety outcomes in Native Hawaiian communities. Applies Discipline 14 Decolonizing Research standards. This research is produced under the ISPI Research Methodology Guide v4.0 — five pillars: government agency sources, regional organizations, OSINT/Bellingcat two-source verification, the ISPI Global Expert Panel of 78 members across 14 disciplines, and AI synthesis under practitioner review. All ISPI research is free under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
DHHL waitlist beneficiaries have waited an average of more than 20 years for land entitlements — a documented source of intergenerational housing instability with measurable juvenile justice consequences
Native Hawaiian youth overrepresentation in Family Court correlates with DHHL waitlist concentration by geographic area — the spatial pattern supports the housing instability causal pathway
Land-based educational and community programs on DHHL lands show the strongest documented outcomes for Native Hawaiian youth diversion from juvenile justice involvement
Discipline 14 — Decolonizing Research — is mandatory for this domain. Indigenous land rights and their public safety implications are relevant across Pacific SIDS with indigenous populations including Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
Pulley, Warren. "Native Hawaiian Rights and DHHL Policy: Public Safety Implications." Island Security Policy Institute, 2026. https://ispiglobal.com/papers-landing/hi07-native-hawaiian-rights.html