Family Court Programs

The Family Court in each circuit handles both juvenile and adult matters which come under its jurisdiction.

Juvenile Services for First Circuit

The Family Court of the First Circuit provides the following juvenile services:

• Juvenile Client Services, Juvenile Specialized Services Section – Provides intake, screening, and counseling services to juveniles and their families.
• Juvenile Client Services, Juvenile Intake and Probation Section – Monitors and supervises juveniles who have been referred to and/or adjudicated by the court for law violations and status offenses and who are required to complete specified condition of an informal adjustment of the referral and who are placed on status or continued under court’s jurisdiction for further disposition.
• Juvenile Drug Court – Is a post-adjudication treatment based drug court program for substance abusing juveniles and their families with gender-specific, culturally competent, family-based, and juvenile justice appropriate interventions.
• Family Drug Court – Is a comprehensive approach to helping parents break the cycle of addiction and child abuse & neglect through monitored service delivery. Includes substance abuse treatment and parent education.
• Hawai`i Girls Court – Provides a positive, pro-active, gender-specific and strength-based program for female juveniles with active family participation. Includes family and individual counseling, community service, educational and recreational activities, and group court sessions.
• Zero to Three Court – Provides monthly court hearings and case conferences for selected cases involving children from birth to three. Focuses on ensuring increased parent-child contacts, frequent monitoring of the child’s well-being, and linking families to the early intervention and early learning communities with the goal of achieving permanence for children in a safe and stable home on a timely basis.

Other programs offered by the Family Court of the First Circuit include:

• Ho`okele Program – Is also known as the Self-Help Desk. The service center provides court users with brochures, self-help packets, court forms, instructions, procedures, and one-on-one assistance in completion of court forms. Staff also provides court users with referrals, addresses, and telephone numbers of outside agencies who may be better able to assist the court user. Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Telephone: (808) 954-8290.
• Kids First Program – Is a program designed to help parents understand the effects of separation and divorce on their children and to help parents and children cope with the changes in their families. Open to parents in paternity, divorce, and civil union divorce cases. Information about the separation and divorce process is presented through video tapes, lectures by experts, and group discussions. Parents have their own program presented by psychologists who specialize in paternity and divorce custody. Children and teens are grouped by age and discussions are led by trained facilitators. They are provided with the opportunity to express their feelings about the separation and divorce through participating in games, role playing, and doing mock trials in the courtroom.
• Project Visitation – Helps to maintain the relationship between siblings who are living in separate foster homes by bringing them together for monthly visitations.
• Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Program – Trained volunteers appointed by the court to represent the best interests of a child in child abuse and neglect cases.
• Ho`olōkāhi Parent Facilitator Program – Provides orientation on the child welfare court system to parents involved in child abuse and neglect cases.
• O`ahu Child Welfare Mediation Program – Provides mediation services in child abuse and neglect cases to facilitate parties in reaching viable agreements and quicker resolution, including permanency for children.

Detention Services

Additional services to juveniles are provided through the Detention Services Branch. The Detention Services Branch administers these facilities in the First Circuit:

• Hale Ho`omalu Juvenile Detention Facility – The Hale Ho`omalu Juvenile Detention Facility is a 24-hour secure facility. At the facility, a team of juvenile detention staff, cooks, probation officers, and a nurse provide educational, recreational, health, guidance, and diagnostic services to juveniles who require temporary secure custody.
• Home Maluhia – Home Maluhia, a non-secured facility, provides therapeutic counseling and rehabilitative services for status offenders and minor law violators who do not require detention.

Adult Services

The Adult Services Branch provides services necessary to reduce or ameliorate family problems experienced by adults. This branch has three specialized units: Temporary Restraining Orders/Domestic Violence, and two Criminal Misdemeanor units.

Support Services

Support services for the Family Court are delivered through the Legal Documents Branch, which oversees the receiving, docketing, indexing, filing, and processing of court documents, and maintains all records of the court.