Patterson and other state officials and juvenile justice reform advocates set out to keep at-risk youth from engaging in behaviors that get them sent into the system in the first place, an effort that, when applied broadly, helped reduce overall female probation sentences by more than two-thirds from 2014 to 2021, according to the state Department of the Attorney General.With Project Kealahou, Hawaiian for "the new pathway," the state’s Department of Health aimed to address prevalent trauma in “at-risk” girls through community-based services like peer mentoring and therapeutic intervention focused on repairing family relationships.The six-year, federally funded effort was modeled on an earlier program, Girl’s Court, that sought to address the needs of at-risk girls and juvenile offenders by providing them with a supportive environment and positive role models, including in recreational settings.Because the power dynamic in prisons can resemble abusive relationships, trauma-informed care tries to ensure that incarcerated adolescents don’t re-experience past damaging experiences, and to that end it provides guidelines that seek to foster mutual respect among youths, caregivers and justice system officials as well as collaboration between therapists and correctional officers on how to interact with inmates.Where once there was just the prison and a school for incarcerated youth, the newly rebranded Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center now boasts on-site vocational training programs, a center for victims of sex-trafficking, an adolescent homeless shelter and opportunities for youths to farm and tend cattle."