Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 349 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to establish an Earned Time Program that provides incentives for inmate rehabilitation in which inmates may earn reductions in their minimum terms of imprisonment as set by the Hawaii Paroling Authority by making consistent progress while incarcerated.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Public Defender, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, the Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, the Community Alliance on Prisons, the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, and six concerned citizens. Your Committee received testimony in support of the intent of this measure from the Department of Public Safety. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of the Prosecutor of the City and County of Honolulu and the Hawaii Paroling Authority.

Your Committee finds that earned time would promote public safety by providing a useful motivation for offenders to actively participate in their rehabilitation.

To address concerns of some of the opponents to this measure your Committee has amended this measure by adding language to provide a mechanism for notifying crime victims when an offender has been awarded good time credit.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 349, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 349, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.