"He grabbed my arm, threw it back at me, opened the door and jumped out," said Karisa Leong.

Her husband jumped to his death on the H-1 freeway less than a week ago.

Incarcerated for 10 years, she said he wasn't prepared for life outside of prison.

"It was constant rejection and lack of support," said Leong.

"It is really something that follows you for the rest of your life," said Kat Brady, who is an inmate advocate and worked with state agencies to make the Justice Reinvestment Initiative a reality.

But for the first time, the state's entire prison system is now being reworked.

"The correctional system needs to do more correcting," she said.

For one, the state is changing the way it assesses inmates.

The Hawaii Paroling Authority told KITV it used to be just a "yes or no" Q & A session.

It said it's now going be a more involved interview, so staff can get a better feel as to whether an inmate is ready to be back into society.