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. 120, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish gender responsive community-based programs for women incarcerated in prison.

Your Committee finds that women inmates have different needs than male inmates. Women offenders are more likely to have been addicted to drugs, mentally ill, and unemployed before incarceration than male offenders. Programs designed to address the unique needs of female inmates, however, are lacking.

This bill would require the Department of Public Safety to develop and implement gender responsive community-based programs for women to achieve gender equity in correctional programming. The Department would be required to provide women the same range of opportunities as men and ensure that women's needs are met to the same extent as men.

Your Committee amended the bill by making technical changes that have no substantive effect.

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. 120, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 120, S.D. 2.