Staff
Erin E. Harbinson, PhD, Executive Director
Prior to joining CJRI, Dr. Erin Harbinson was a research scholar for the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School where she led projects studying community corrections, authored several technical reports, and secured funding for research. Dr. Harbinson has worked as a policy analyst for the Council of State Governments Justice Center conducting technical assistance for states implementing justice reinvestment legislation. She received her PhD in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati and worked for the University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute. While there, she conducted trainings on risk assessment and evaluated correctional programs.
Her research interests include criminal justice policy, risk assessment, and improving the measurement of performance metrics and outcomes in criminal justice. Dr. Harbinson has been invited to speak on evidence-based practices, applied criminal justice research, and cybercrime. She has published research on parole, corrections, risk assessment, white-collar crime, and cybercrime in journals such as Criminal Justice and Behavior, Journal of Crime and Justice, Criminal Justice Studies, and European Journal of Probation.
Aerielle Reynolds, MSCJA, Research Analyst
Aerielle Reynolds is a PhD candidate in criminal justice at Capella University, and has received her MS in criminal justice administration and her BS in criminology and criminal justice from Chaminade University of Honolulu. Her research experience includes her time as a research fellow at Yale University’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and at Purdue University’s Summer Research Opportunities Program.
Her research experience includes quantitative analysis exploring the role of prison-based substance abuse treatment programs in preventing post-incarceration substance use among clinic clientele and qualitative analysis exploring the role of gender among community court staff and clients and its impact on compliance rates. Her research interests include plea bargaining, corrections, recidivism, rehabilitative programming, alternatives to incarceration, and issues related to race and gender in crime.
Samuel Choi, PhD, Research Analyst
Dr. Samuel (Sam) Choi is a legal psychologist. He earned his MS and PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Wyoming. At the University of Wyoming, he was a member of the Psychology and Law lab, where he conducted studies on a broad range of criminal justice and psycho-legal topics, such as plea bargaining, jury decision making, policing, and hate crimes.
Sam’s work has been interdisciplinary as he has published research in both criminal justice and psychology journals, including Psychology, Psychiatry, and Law, Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, Criminal Justice Review, and Race and Justice. In addition, he has orally presented his work at multiple professional conferences across the US.
Mariah A. McCaskill, Secretary
Prior to moving to Hawai’i, Mariah managed an environment exclusively designed for the facilitation of events that helped client teams navigate large-scale complex business challenges at a global consulting firm specializing in technology services and digital transformation.
Mariah is currently a student in Chaminade University of Honolulu’s master of science in criminal justice studies program. She has earned an A.S. in paralegal studies from Kapiolani Community College in 2020 and completed undergraduate studies in administration of justice and political science at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo in 2023. Mariah’s academic experience includes internships with the Hawai`i Innocence Project and the Hawai`i State Legislature.
Wilneris Colon, Undergraduate Research Intern
Wilneris Colon is a senior at Chaminade University of Honolulu, majoring in Chaminade’s data science and computer science BS undergraduate programs. Alongside her double major, she is completing a minor in criminology and criminal justice. At Chaminade University, she is a member of the Social Sciences Research Club.
Before interning for CJRI, Wilneris’s research analyst experience includes her internship with the state of Hawaii’s Department of the Attorney General’s Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division (Research and Statistics Branch). Her internship and project experiences have been interdisciplinary across criminal justice, data science, and computer science. She has contributed to projects involving remote sensing, predictive modeling, machine learning, criminology, public policy, and social justice.
Elora Tonaki, Undergraduate Research Intern
Elora Tonaki is a senior at Chaminade University of Honolulu, majoring in Chaminade’s data science bachelor of science undergraduate program. She is also minoring in their computer science program and fulfilling their computer science certificate. Before interning at CJRI, Elora gained research analytical experience through internships with Chaminade University, including as Supporting Pacific Indigenous Computing Excellence (SPICE), a Data Science Summer Institute held in partnership with the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), Research Assistant Traineeship, and the Advanced Computing Student Collaborative (ACSC), presented by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF).
She has worked on projects which include using Machine Learning models to predict the presence of behavioral/mental disorders from sensor data and Deep Learning models using Convolutional Neural Networks to detect early signs of dementia from structural MRI scans.
Larchelle Tuifao, Undergraduate Research Intern
Larchelle Tuifao is a senior at Chaminade University of Honolulu, majoring in Chaminade’s computer science undergraduate program while also fulfilling their computer science certificate. Before interning at CJRI, Larchelle’s analytical and research experience includes her time as a research fellow at Texas Advanced Computing Center’s SPICE summer institute, the Research Assistant Traineeship program, and the U.S. National Science Foundation Leadership-Class Computing Facility’s ACSC program.
She has worked on projects which include using Machine Learning models to predict the gestures that were performed when there was a presence of behavioral/mental disorders from sensor data, to predict the severity of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in males and females as well as the most influential factors that went into the prediction, and to predict in which stage (stage I – stage IV) of pancreatic cancer a patient was in using clinical data. She also used Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to detect early stages of pancreatic cancer from CAT scans of pancreas.
Board of Directors
Judge Matthew J. Viola, CJRI Board Chair
Judge, First Circuit Criminal Division, Judiciary
Judiciary
Nicole C. Fernandez
Offender Services Section Administrator – WCCC, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Governor’s Office
Representative Mahina Poepoe
Hawai’i State Representative – District 13
House of Representatives
Francis Young
Corrections Program Services Division Administrator, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation