Over the past 40 years the number of people jailed in Hawaii has increased almost tenfold, yet during that time Hawaii’s population didn’t even double. We are jailing more people and not because crime has gotten worse. Our crime rate is the lowest since we started collecting data. Yet Hawai'i uproots nearly 1,500 men by sending them to a private prison in Arizona, which has impacted some of our most vulnerable families. Additionally, our jails are operating at double their design capacity: 2,200 people are held there on any given day, and about half are pre-trial detainees who haven’t had a trial and are held at a cost of $146/day per person. And with bail for a class C felony on Oahu averaging $20,000, people sit in our jails while they wait for trial simply because they can’t afford to get out.
Money bail – which is used in almost no other developed countries – is the reason for this unconscionable inequity. Fixing money bail is the first step of our Hawai'i “Smart Justice” campaign to reduce incarceration rates by 50%, while addressing systemic racial inequalities. For more background candidates are encouraged to learn more at www.acluhi.org/bailstudy.
To make this happen, the ACLU of Hawai'i is hiring a Campaign Director to lead a groundbreaking, statewide, multi-year Smart Justice campaign. The ideal candidate will have: successful experience managing campaigns, leadership experience in statewide efforts that include coalition building, lobbying, strategic communications, organizing, and electoral work; and personal experience being incarcerated or in other ways entangled with the criminal justice system, along with community organizing and strategic planning experience. While the ideal candidate will have a combination of these experiences, candidates with either of these experiences are encouraged to apply.
We want someone who can help build a movement.
Although the campaign will begin with a focus on money bail, objectives also include reforming Hawaii's parole, probation, and prosecutorial systems, and increasing the availability of programs that can be alternatives to incarceration.
The Campaign Director will report to the Executive Director and lead an interdisciplinary, cross-departmental campaign team, including a Smart Justice organizer who will be hired once the Campaign Director is on board. This two-year position will be based in Honolulu, with the possibility of extension, depending on a variety of factors.
Our Smart Justice Campaign Director Will:
Lead a campaign aimed at ending mass incarceration in Hawai'i
• by combining legislative, grassroots advocacy, organizing, communications, legal, and community engagement strategies.
Build and lead a statewide coalition
• by forming partnerships with stakeholders including formerly incarcerated people, crime survivors, law enforcement, legislators, business leaders, health professionals, reform advocates, and religious and political leaders.
Identify, nurture, and elevate leadership
• within impacted communities and the broader public to help shape and inform campaign goals, tactics, and strategies.
Work closely with local and national staff
• review and make adjustments as necessary to the current Smart Justice campaign plan, oversee research, polling, and communications, and implement the campaign plan.
Help hire and manage
• a Smart Justice organizer, consultants, and volunteers to advance campaign goals through direct and grassroots lobbying, strategic communications, public outreach, and constituent engagement.
Develop performance metrics
• and evaluate the success of particular tactics as well as the campaign’s overall effectiveness. Adjust as necessary.
Provide regular, comprehensive updates on campaign progress to various stakeholders.
Our Smart Justice Campaign Director Will Bring These Qualifications:
• Experience using policy analysis and research, lobbying, polling, media, communications, grassroots organizing and mobilization, and alliance-building, to influence a policy agenda, with experience engaging with and influencing decision-makers.
• Proven ability to build and nurture a calm and positive working environment, even in high-intensity situations.
• Personal experience being incarcerated or in other ways entangled with the criminal justice system is strongly preferred.
• Experience managing project timelines, team-building, delegating, and supervising a diverse staff.
• Knowledge of criminal justice reform advocacy and messaging or an ability to quickly become conversant with the latest decarceration research, messaging, and tactics used to educate the public and move policymakers.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to travel frequently throughout the state and occasionally to the mainland.
• Familiarity with Hawai'i and its legislative process is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with local, regional, state and national media outlets, including print, radio, television, new media, blogging community is preferred.
Finally, our Smart Justice Campaign Director will bring a commitment to the mission and goals of the ACLU of Hawai'i … along with a personal dedication to a professional team that will bring us into our next 50 years as Hawaii's guardian of liberty.
Are You Ready to Help Lead Us into the Future?
If you’re excited about devoting your talents and skills to the ACLU of Hawai'i, please submit your resume, letter of interest, and mention of where you learned of this opportunity, by email, to [email protected]. Please include your last name and “Smart Justice – Hawai'i” in the subject line of the email. No phone calls, please. To ensure that we receive your application, please do not use any other ACLU email address.
Salary is commensurate with experience and within the parameters of the ACLU of Hawai'i compensation scale. Excellent benefits include generous vacation and sick leave; individual/family employer-provided health insurance; life insurance and long-term disability; defined contribution plan with employer match; and 14 paid holidays. This position is full-time, salaried, and exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
We will accept applications until August 1, 2018 or until the position is filled, at which time the job announcement will be removed from our website, www.acluhi.org/jobs. We hope that one of those applications is yours.
The ACLU of Hawai'i is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest organization, dedicated to defending and enhancing civil rights and civil liberties through litigation, legislative advocacy, organizing, and community education.
The ACLU of Hawai'i is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. It is our policy to employ qualified people without regard to: race; color; religion; sex; national origin; age; ancestry; disability; sexual orientation; veteran’s status; marital status; civil union status; arrest or court record; citizenship; credit history; genetic information; gender identity or expression; status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence, or stalking; or any other characteristic protected under federal or state law.