Hawai‘i’s Women’s Prison: The Role of the Kailua Prison Writing Project and the Prison Monologues as Expressive Pu‘uhonua - Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation - August 2017

Aug 27, 2026

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Women’s plight in the prison industrial complex resounds within a broader, and disturbingly American narrative: the disproportionate incarceration of non-whites in a prison-industrial gulag. Prisons in Hawai‘i reflect an ongoing colonial relationship to the United States following the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom by force. Centered on women’s testimony, including Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women, the dissertation examines carceral experience through two genderresponsive programs: the Kailua Prison Writing Project and its Prison Monologues.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages268

Reading Time11 h 15 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Research focus and intervention

Hawai‘i, colonialism, and incarceration

Methodology and research experience

Genderresponsive programs: Kailua Prison Writing Project

Prison Monologues and expressive pu‘uhonua

HAWAI‘I’S WOMEN’S PRISON: THE ROLE OF THE KAILUA PRISON WRITING PROJECT AND THE PRISON MONOLOGUES AS EXPRESSIVE PU‘UHONUA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN AMERICAN STUDIES AUGUST 2017 By Leanne Trapedo Sims Dissertation Committee: Elizabeth Colwill, Chairperson Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez Robert Perkinson Meda Chesney-Lind Cynthia Franklin Keywords: Women’s Prison Writing in Hawai‘i, Life Writing, Trauma Narratives, Poetry and Performance, Incarceration, Race and Gender in the Pacific Islands ©2017 by Leanne Trapedo Sims All rights reserved ii DEDICATION For the beautiful women inside. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not be possible without the unwavering support of my committee. I owe much gratitude to Meda Chesney-Lind, who in the course of her feminist methodology seminar at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, introduced me to Lorraine Robinson, the director of Ka Hale Ho‘āla Hou No Nā Wāhine/The Home of Reawakening for Women—the parole re-entry program that many of the women from Women’s Correctional Community Center (WCCC) are funneled through. This fortuitous introduction and the work I did at Ka Hale Ho‘āla Hou No Nā Wāhine allowed me entry into WCCC. Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez was there from the beginning with her astute and keen insights. She suffered terrible drafts of my dissertation proposal and helped me, along with Meda Chesney-Lind’s guidance, to work through a challenging IRB proposal. Vernadette offered theoretical critiques and supported me with letters of recommendation—one of which, alongside Elizabeth Colwill’s, eventuated in a 2016–17 American Association University of Women (AAUW) dissertation fellowship. Cynthia Franklin pushed me to explore the political implications of my project, and introduced me to Simone Weil Davis, which facilitated the training I did with the Walls to Bridges Prison Facilitator Training Program in Kitchener, Ontario. This invaluable experience shaped the ethical literacy praxis I am indebted to as a facilitator in the prison. Robert Perkinson, a notable prison scholar, offered me instrumental insights into prison theories and scholarship. He was there to talk to me when I had a devastating experience in the facility and felt that I was drowning in unchartered territory. And finally this project could never have been accomplished without the Chair of my Committee, Elizabeth Colwill, who has read far too many drafts of my dissertation, always with afresh and critical eye. She is the embodiment of the word “mentor”with her endless grace, sharp wit, and sensitive mind, and mostly her stalwart commitment to the project, the inside women, and to me as a scholar and human. I use Betsy’s model of mentorship as I face my own students, always reaching, although never approximating her abundant gift for empathy and intellect. I owe much gratitude for the funding I received during the writing and refining of my dissertation. I was a recipient of the national AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship (2016–2017), which was instrumental in my final year of writing. The American Studies Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa generously provided funding in the form of the following: College of Arts and Humanities Dissertation Research Award, American Studies Outreach Graduate Scholarship Award, and the Glen Grant Award for Doctoral Research. I am grateful to the department’s continued support of my scholarship. As my project is situated in the field of Gender Studies, I benefitted from an extended community of feminist scholars, including all of the powerful feminist scholars on my dissertation committee, a National Women’s Studies Association Travel Grant, and a scholarship from the AAUW‐Honolulu Branch. I thank Suzanna Danuta Walters, Chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Program at Northeas

FAQs

What is the central argument of the dissertation?

The dissertation foregrounds women’s testimony in Hawai‘i’s carceral landscape, especially Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women, challenging traditions that privilege male prison writing.

Why are Hawai‘i’s prisons discussed as tied to colonial history?

The work links prisons in Hawai‘i to the continued colonial relationship with the United States, arising from the forcible overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Which programs are examined to understand women’s prison writing?

The dissertation analyzes two genderresponsive programs: the Kailua Prison Writing Project and the Prison Monologues.

Aug 27, 2026

Upload by Violet