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. 883 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prohibit a court from accepting a plea of nolo contendere for the offense of sexual assault in the first degree.

Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting a constitutional amendment to require that first time non-violent drug offenders be sentenced to undergo and complete a drug treatment program rather than incarceration.

Your Committee received testimony in support of the amended measure from the American Civil Liberties Union and Community Alliance on Prisons. Testimony in opposition was received from the Department of Public Safety.

Your Committee believes that the public should have a right to decide this matter because it is of such major importance with concomitant effects on the state budget and the economy.

Your Committee is aware that S.B. No. 1188, S.D. 2, H.D. 2, is currently in conference committee as a carryover measure from 2001. Your Committee will revisit that bill in conference during this Session.

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. 883, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 883, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.