Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1188, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to implement a policy shift in addressing non-violent drug possession offenses by mandating community-based supervision and treatment for certain offenders in lieu of incarceration.

More specifically, the bill requires community-based supervision and treatment for offenders convicted of nonviolent drug possession offenses. It also requires that probationers and parolees who are at-risk of revocation because of continued drug use be continued on conditional release with substance abuse treatment conditions.

Your Committee recognizes that the link between substance abuse and crime is well established. Past efforts to reduce crime by increasing criminal penalties have been discouraging, as evidenced by the continued rise in crime rates in general and recidivism in particular. Your Committee notes thirty per cent of Hawaii's statewide adult felon population are failing drug tests. Your Committee also notes that many first time offenders are not receiving any treatment for their substance abuse problems. Your Committee believes that offender recidivism can not be reduced or the cycle of substance abuse broken without dedicated resources for treatment and other services. This bill, based upon the principle of harm reduction, attempts to shift the focus of drug control policies from law enforcement and criminal justice to public health, in recognition that the problem is essentially one of disease rather than criminality. Your Committee believes that providing treatment for nonviolent substance abuse offenders, rather than incarceration, is best for the individual and the community at large.

It is not the intent of your Committee to supplant the efforts of Hawaii's drug court or to diminish the seriousness of crime. Furthermore, your Committee notes that the pool of eligible non-violent drug offenders the bill is intended to address is narrowly drawn.

Your Committee also finds that this bill is intended to operate in concert with the $4,500,000 provided in S.B. No. 879, S.D. 1, which is another vehicle for carrying out the commitment of the Legislature to begin to address the substance abuse treatment needs of our State.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1188, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1188, S.D. 2.