REPORT TITLE: 
Boot Camp


DESCRIPTION:
Establishes low security boot camp type facilities to house low-
risk inmates such as nonviolent drug offenders.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        2237
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  According to the department of public safety in
 
 2 its report:  "Corrections 2000:  A Plan to Manage the
 
 3 Correctional Population in Hawaii," dated November 17, 1992, the
 
 4 basic problem with the State's correctional system, is
 
 5 overcrowding.  In recent years, under a federal consent decree,
 
 6 state prisons have been operating at full capacity and have been
 
 7 forced to release prisoners to maintain federally-mandated
 
 8 population levels.  The crisis will worsen if current laws,
 
 9 policies, and practices are continued.
 
10      According to the report, there are two options for resolving
 
11 the bed space shortage.  The prison population can be reduced by:
 
12      (1)  Slowing the rate of intake or increasing the rate of
 
13           release; or
 
14      (2)  Expanding its capacity by building more facilities.
 
15      The first alternative of lowering the population by slowing
 
16 the rate of intake or early release, provides no justification
 
17 for allowing criminals to serve less than full sentences.  The
 
18 recidivism rate of inmates has been shown to be highest while the
 
19 inmate is out on parole or early release from prison.
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1      The legislature finds that although the department is
 
 2 already using some intermediate punishments, including such
 
 3 pretrial programs as supervised release and the community service
 
 4 restitution program, programs for sentenced inmates such as
 
 5 community service and furloughs, and intensive supervision and
 
 6 electronic monitoring for those on parole, the department needs
 
 7 to build additional bed space and aggressively expand
 
 8 intermediate punishments and programs that promote the
 
 9 reintegration of inmates.
 
10      The purpose of this Act is to establish a minimum security,
 
11 low-cost means of providing additional prison space, such as a
 
12 "boot" camp.  Such efforts have been effective in Arizona, where
 
13 Sheriff Joseph Arpaio constructed one thousand bed spaces out of
 
14 donated Army and Navy surplus tents.  The total cost of the
 
15 facility was $800 per prisoner.  In a jail system designed for
 
16 three thousand nine hundred prisoners, Arizona's prisons now
 
17 accommodates five thousand nine hundred and forty.  The boot camp
 
18 is staffed by only two guards, and prisoners are on a strict
 
19 regimen that allows no privileges.  Arizona and other states
 
20 report substantial savings from subsistence boot camp programs.
 
21      SECTION 2.  (a)  The director of public safety, pursuant to
 
22 section 353-9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, shall create and maintain
 
23 boot camps for nonviolent, committed persons with a minimum
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1 security or lower security classification in any correctional
 
 2 facility of the department; provided that the quality of the room
 
 3 and board provided for under this program shall not exceed the
 
 4 quality of accommodations provided by the United States for its
 
 5 military forces.
 
 6      (b)  The director shall implement work, training, and
 
 7 educational opportunities to enable the inmates to earn their
 
 8 release.  The director shall also implement chain gangs composed
 
 9 of inmates who violate any provision of this section to perform
 
10 labor intensive services for the community.
 
11      SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
12 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $_________________ or
 
13 so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2000-2001,
 
14 for the establishment and maintenance of the low security boot
 
15 camp facilities described in this act.
 
16      SECTION 4.  The sum appropriated shall be expended by the
 
17 department of public safety for the purposes of this Act.
 
18      SECTION 5.  Boot camps established under this Act shall not
 
19 be discontinued until alternative, permanent correctional
 
20 facilities, with the capacity to control and detain all inmates
 
21 herein, have been constructed and maintained in Hawaii.
 
22      SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2000.
 
23 
 
24                       INTRODUCED BY:  ___________________________
 
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