Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1750 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for community-based programs that assist female offenders in transitioning back into the community.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Public Safety, the Hawaii Paroling Authority, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, TJ Mahoney and Associates, the ACLU of Hawaii, the Community Alliance on Prisons, A Woman's Voice International, and thirty-six individuals.

This measure appropriates funds for important community-based programs that assist female offenders transitioning back into the community. These programs play a significant role in breaking the cycle of recidivism by providing important life and job training skills for female inmates to succeed in a post-incarceration setting. Your Committee notes that if an appropriation in the amount of $800,000 was made, TJ Mahoney and Associates would be able to provide important social services to recently released female inmates in a thirty bed facility at a rate of $72 a day for a year.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, non-substantive amendments for purposes of clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1750, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1750, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.