Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2818, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to include employees of private companies working in correctional facilities in the scope of sexual offenses statutes.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Public Safety (PSD), Hawaii State Commission of the Status of Women, Community Alliance on Prisons, ACLU Hawaii, and two private individuals.

Current law prohibits sexual assault against inmates in correctional facilities, but no reference is made to correctional facilities operated by private companies. This loophole could be construed to mean that only state employees working in state correctional facilities, and not employees of private companies that work in state correctional facilities, are subject to the sexual offenses statutes. This measure strengthens the legal protections of imprisoned persons from sexual penetration and sexual contact by any worker in a correctional facility, regardless of the employer.

Your Committee has amended this measure on the recommendation of the PSD to clarify that a commitment of persons is made to the PSD rather than to a private correctional facility, which is the correct procedure because an inmate is technically committed to the PSD even if confined in a private facility.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2818, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2818, S.D. 2.