Department of Institutions

Corporate body

Department of Institutions

1939-1958

Act 203 of the 1939 legislative session established the Department of Institutions of the Territory of Hawaiʻi and delegated to it jurisdiction over the Territorial Hospital, Waialeʻe Training School for Boys, Kawailoa Training School for Girls, and the Oʻahu Prison and prison camps. By an oversight, Waimano Home was omitted from the original act but was incorporated by Act 5, S.L.H. 1941.

Prior to 1939 the territorial institutions were administered and controlled by independent boards and commissions whose efforts were entirely uncoordinated. Act 203 abolished these boards and commissions, and transferred all the rights, powers, functions, duties, and liabilities held by them to the Department of Institutions.

Appointed by the Governor with the approval of the Territorial Senate and usually serving a term of four years, the chief executive of the department was the Director of Institutions. He also was a member of the Governor's cabinet. In broad terms, the duties of the director were: (1) to coordinate and direct all phases of the administration of the institutions, (2) to formulate policies for an integrated program of treatment and training, (3) to exercise administrative control over the preparation of all budgets and over the expenditure of all funds made available to each institution or agency, (4) to prepare legislation for presentation to the legislature, and (5) to annually report the activities and conditions of the department to the Governor. Governor Joseph B. Poindexter appointed Oscar F. Goddard the first Director of Institutions.

Pursuant to Act 203 an Advisory Board on Institutions was created. The Board consisted of five members, appointed and removed by the Governor, serving without pay and holding office for one year or until successors were appointed. The Director of Institutions was the presiding officer of the Board and he alone had the authority to call meetings. Selected to serve on the Board were Mrs. Eva Hendry, Messrs. Reginald P. Faithfull, Wade Warren Thayer, Theodore F. Trent, and F. B. Faus.

The Department of Institutions also included other government agencies. They were the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Identification, the Division of Parole and Homeplacement, and the Board of Paroles and Pardons.

The Department of Institutions was created to coordinate and direct the administrations of the several institutions. However, in 1954, Director Charles H. Silva found it necessary to delineate lines of authority, areas of conflict, and areas of overlapping. Consequently, Management Consulting Services, a private research firm, was employed to study the department. Among the significant findings of the research group was the "lack of department understanding of the way the department is set up because of too much autonomy." Management Consulting Services was contracted again in 1955 to assist in implementing the study recommendations and by 1956 the Department of Institutions was reorganized into five major divisions: the Division of Hawaii Prison System, including Oʻahu Prison and the prison camps; the Division of Territorial Hospital; the Division of Parole and Homeplacement; the Division of Waimano Home; and the Division of Training Schools, consisting of Koʻolau Boys' Home, Kawailoa Girls' Home, and the Molokaʻi Forestry Camp.

With statehood in 1959 and the ensuing reorganization of the executive departments in accordance with Act I of the Second Special Session of 1959, the authority and functions exercised by the Department of Institutions were transferred to the newly established Department of Social Services. Control over the Waimano Home and the State Hospital was delegated to the Department of Health.

Act 203, SLH 1939

ISO 8601

1993-03, J. Nakamatsu: Reformatted.
1995-11, A. Hoof: Revised.

2021-03-01, Ronald Williams Jr.: Entered into AToM.
2021-04-27, Carol Kellett: Updated Dates of creation, revision and deletion.
2021-08-25, Carol Kellett: added predecessor agency: Board of Industrial Schools.