Directs the department of public safety to adopt strict policies regarding program participation by inmates. Appropriates funds to increase prison worklines in the community. Authorizes HCDA to contract for minimum security inmate housing at Kalaeloa.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that offenders who receive program and employment opportunities in prison prior to being released back into the community have much greater chances of not returning to prison. Inmates who receive these opportunities while they are classified at the minimum or community custody level are more likely to successfully return to society and participate as productive, law-abiding citizens.

Minimum custody inmates have demonstrated they can function with minimal supervision in a correctional setting or in the community under direct supervision. Community custody inmates are eligible to participate in community release programs such as work furlough, extended furlough, or residential transitional living centers.

However, due to budget constraints, Hawaii has only two minimum-security prisons, Waiawa correctional facility on Oahu and Kulani correctional facility on the island of Hawaii. Waiawa was designed for two hundred ninety-four inmates and Kulani often exceeds its operational capacity of one hundred sixty beds. The legislature finds that a total of five hundred fifty-four beds for inmates who are ready to be reintegrated into the community is woefully lacking.

According to the department of public safety's 2004 annual report, thirty-nine per cent of male inmates and forty-seven per cent of female inmates are classified as minimum or community custody. Based on the department's January 16, 2006 population figures, this means that there are currently 2,459 inmates who qualify for reintegration programs through educational, substance abuse treatment, vocational training, employment opportunities, and workline projects in the community.

The purpose of this Act is to increase the number of minimum custody housing for inmates, encourage a programs approach to inmate case management, and develop more work opportunities for inmates to benefit the community.

SECTION 2. The department of public safety is authorized to seek opportunities to build minimum security housing of the type that can be erected in a fairly short amount of time, such as housing structures used by the military, on a portion of the Kalaeloa parcel under the jurisdiction of the Hawaii community development authority. The department of public safety and the Hawaii community development authority shall explore the feasibility of planning, designing, and constructing a suitable minimum security facility at the Kalaeloa site using pre-fabricated and quick-build design housing programs.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $4,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, for planning, design, and construction of minimum security housing for inmates.

SECTION 4. The department of public safety shall adopt a policy that mandates all inmates to participate in facility programs, provided that medical and mental health concerns are considered when waiving an inmate's participation. This programs approach to case management shall be implemented as a means to assist minimum and community custody level inmates with educational and employment opportunities when they are released back into our neighborhoods and communities.

SECTION 5. In-facility workline programs and in-community workline programs provide productive, mutually beneficial results for the inmate, the facility, and the community. The department of public safety is directed to increase the scope and number of workline programs it currently operates at its prison and jail facilities.

SECTION 6. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, for developing and operating in-facility workline programs at each correctional facility and in-community workline projects throughout the State.

SECTION 7. The department of public safety shall submit a report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the start of the regular session of the 2007 legislature on the status of this Act, including cost implications, statutory impediments, and proposals for new legislation, if needed.

SECTION 8. The sums appropriated in sections 3 and 6 shall be expended by the department of public safety for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 9. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2006.