§353C-5 Criminal history record checks. The department shall develop standards to assure the reputable and responsible characters of staff members of its correctional facilities which shall include but not be limited to criminal history record checks. For the purposes of this section, "staff member" means any employee of the department of public safety who is directly involved with the treatment and care of persons committed to a facility or who possesses police powers including the power of arrest, and "prospective staff member" means any applicant for a job in the department of public safety that is directly involved with the treatment and care of persons committed to a facility or that requires the exercise of police powers including the power to arrest in the performance of its duties.

Every staff member and prospective staff member shall submit a statement under penalty of unsworn falsification to authorities indicating whether the staff member or prospective staff member was ever convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic violation involving a fine of $50 or less and providing consent to the department to conduct a criminal history record check and to obtain other criminal history record information for verification. The staff member shall be fingerprinted for the purpose of complying with the criminal history record check. The prospective staff member shall be fingerprinted and the criminal history record check shall be completed prior to beginning employment.

The department shall obtain criminal history record information through the Hawaii criminal justice data center on all staff and prospective staff members of the department of public safety. The Hawaii criminal justice data center may assess prospective staff members a reasonable fee for each criminal history record check conducted. The information obtained shall be used exclusively for the stated purpose for which it was obtained, and shall be subject to such federal laws and federal regulations as may be now or hereafter adopted.

The department may deny employment to a prospective staff member who was convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic violation involving a fine of $50 or less and if the department finds from the prospective staff member's criminal history record that the prospective staff member poses a risk to the health, safety, security, or well-being of inmates under supervision and confinement, other staff, or the public at large.

Staff members shall not be subject to termination based on findings in their criminal records except for those whose conviction of a crime occurred after May 8, 1989, or under circumstances in which a staff member is [a] fugitive from justice. The convictions of staff members subject to termination must be for crimes other than a minor traffic violation involving a fine of $50 or less, and the staff member must pose a risk to the health, safety, security, or well-being of inmates under supervision and confinement, other staff, or the public at large. [L 1992, c 65, §1; am L 1997, c 6, §1]