Authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds and appropriates funds for capital improvement projects for additional correctional facilities.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that there have been a number of recent proposals to provide for privatized correctional facilities in the State, including having a private contractor both construct and manage a private prison. The legislature, however, finds that the construction and management of a prison is a function that should be retained by state and county government, not the private sector. The number of security breaches at privately operated prisons on the U.S. mainland has demonstrated that public safety should remain a government function and not one that is delegated to private vendors.

Moreover, the legislature finds that the construction and management of a correctional facility in Hawaii is a function that the State should already be performing. A publicly constructed correctional facility that is run by public employees would help keep jobs in the state, reduce overcrowding in the State's prisons, and stop the transfer of inmates to correctional facilities on the mainland.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to require the department of public safety to design, construct, and maintain a public correctional facility, and to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds and make an appropriation for this purpose.

SECTION 2. The department of public safety shall design, construct, and maintain a public correctional facility; provided that the correctional facility shall be designed for and operated as an intensive treatment facility. The facility shall specialize in treating inmates in need of substance abuse treatment in a therapeutic environment. According to each inmate's needs, the facility shall also provide a wide array of culturally- and gender-appropriate programs, mental health services, group counseling, anger management programs, transitional programs, cognitive restructuring, remedial education, and vocational training.

SECTION 3. The department shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, that specify minimum applicable standards for the siting, construction, operation, and physical condition of a public correctional facility and for the security, safety, health, treatment, and discipline of persons confined in that facility; provided that the rules shall conform to applicable standards of the American Correctional Association and National Commission on Correctional Health Care.

SECTION 4. The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary is appropriated for fiscal year 2005-2006 for the purpose of designing and constructing a public correctional facility as follows:

Design $

Total funding $

SECTION 5. The appropriation made for the capital improvement project authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal year for which the appropriation is made; provided that all appropriations which are unencumbered as of June 30, 2008, shall lapse as of that date.

SECTION 6. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of public safety for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.