Minimum · State Prison · HI DCR

Waiawa Correctional Facility

Waipahu, Honolulu County, Hawaii

Visiting schedules change without notice. Always call before traveling.

Call Visiting Office: (808) 677-6150 Info last verified: June 2026

A minimum-security Oahu prison for sentenced men nearing release, with substance-abuse treatment, work furlough, and vocational programs.

Statewide rules that apply at HI DCR facilities

These rules are set by HI DCR and apply at every unit. The full list — including all permitted and prohibited items and the approval process — is in Visiting in Hawaii.

Dress code

Dress modestly — Hawaii facilities enforce a visiting dress code that bars revealing, sheer, or provocative clothing, beachwear, and anything resembling what inmates or staff wear; closed-toe footwear is expected.
Each facility sets and enforces its own specifics and may turn a visitor away for dressing out of code, and electronics are not allowed inside, so confirm the dress code with the facility before traveling.

ID: Every visitor must be on the inmate's approved visitor list before visiting — the inmate submits the proposed list, DCR runs a background check, and the facility approves or denies. Bring a government-issued photo ID to each visit.
What to bring: Bring only what the facility allows — most personal items are not permitted in the visiting room. Money for an inmate's account at an in-state facility is sent through GTL / ViaPath ConnectNetwork, never handed over at a visit; the Saguaro prison in Arizona uses a separate money process.
Scheduling: Hawaii has no statewide online scheduler — each facility sets its own visiting days and hours and runs its own visitation hotline, so confirm with the specific facility. Video visits are available through tablets at the in-state facilities. The neighbor-island facilities (on Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island) are reachable from Oahu mainly by air. The roughly 800 men held at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona visit on that prison's schedule, with video booked through the state's mainland branch. Women are held at the Women's Community Correctional Center (Kailua).

Full statewide rules: Visiting in Hawaii

Overview

Waiawa Correctional Facility is a minimum-security state prison for men operated by the Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR). It is in the Waipahu area of Oahu and holds sentenced men, with an emphasis on reintegration as people near release.

Hawaii runs a unified corrections system: with no county jails, DCR operates both the jails that hold pretrial and short-sentence populations and the prisons that hold sentenced felons. Waiawa is one of the system’s sentenced-felon prisons, focused on minimum-custody men preparing to return to the community.

What Makes the Waiawa Correctional Facility Different

Waiawa’s mission centers on preparing minimum-custody men for release through work furlough and structured programming. Work furlough allows eligible inmates to work in the community while housed at the facility.

The facility houses the KASHBOX residential substance-abuse treatment program. It also offers vocational training in areas including culinary work, forklift operation, and carpentry.

Visiting

The statewide DCR rules above — the approved-visitor-list process, the dress code, ID requirements, and item limits — apply at Waiawa. Visiting in Hawaii is arranged facility by facility; there is no single statewide online scheduler. Confirm the current visiting days, hours, and whether a visit must be booked in advance by calling the facility at (808) 677-6150 before traveling.

Hawaii facilities also offer video visits. DCR rolled out GTL (ViaPath) tablets statewide, and families connect remotely through video visitation during assigned times. See Phone & Video Calls for how video visits and accounts work.

Getting There

Waiawa Correctional Facility is at 94-560 Kamehameha Highway in the Waipahu area of central/leeward Oahu. This street address is for reaching the facility in person; mail for an inmate uses the P.O. Box (see below).

Mail

Hawaii does not use an off-site mail vendor. Incoming personal mail for an inmate goes directly to the facility through its post-office box, not the street address. Address mail with the inmate’s full name and ID number:

[Inmate’s full name and number] Waiawa Correctional Facility P.O. Box 1839 Pearl City, HI 96782

Books, magazines, and other publications must be sent directly from the publisher or an approved vendor — personal book mailings are not accepted. Envelopes with stickers, glitter, glue, drawings, or lipstick or kiss marks, and mail missing the sender’s full name and return address, are rejected. See Mail & Packages for the full statewide rules.

Communication

Phones, tablets, and video visits run through GTL (ViaPath), billed through ConnectNetwork. Trust-account deposits also go through ConnectNetwork. See the guides below for accounts, costs, and deposit limits.

Learn More

For detailed information about visiting and communicating with someone at a Hawaii facility:

Visiting in Hawaii — approval process, dress code, scheduling
Mail & Packages — what you can send and what gets rejected
Phone & Video Calls — accounts, call costs, video visits
Sending Money — how to add funds to an account
Medical & Mental Health — health care in Hawaii facilities
Transfers — what happens during transfers

Sources

This page is compiled from the following publicly available sources. Policies change without notice — confirm current details with the facility before relying on them.