Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety & Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1005 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide support to incarcerated parents and their children.

Specifically, the bill establishes a task force within the Department of Public Safety to examine the policies, procedures, and operations of state correctional facilities, including recommendations to:

Your Committee received testimony in support of this bill from Child and Family Services, Hawaii Juvenile Justice Project, the Salvation Army, the Community Alliance on Prisons, Good Beginnings Alliance, Keiki O Ka Aina Learning Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a private citizen. The Department of Public Safety submitted testimony in opposition to this bill.

Your Committee finds that incarceration has a strong negative impact on the children of inmates, resulting in a broad range of potential problems for those children. Inmates with children require support to help them maintain family relationships and to successfully reenter society after they are released. This measure will assist in determining the appropriate and necessary programs and services that will help incarcerated parents and their children to have more successful personal and family lives during and after their incarceration.

The bill has been amended to include, as public members of the task force, individuals with advocacy experience working with children of incarcerated parents, including:

(1) Good Beginnings Alliance;

(2) Hawaii Juvenile Justice Project;

(3) Community Alliance on Prisons;

(4) Child and Family Services; and

(5) Keiki O Ka Aina Family Learning Centers.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety & Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1005, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1005, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Human Services.