Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2688 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to ensure adequate youth correctional facility staff training and to revise the duties and responsibilities of regional advisory boards.

Specifically, this measure requires the Executive Director of Youth Services to implement policies and procedures, protocols, and a quality assurance program that comport with national best practices in juvenile justice to ensure that the staff at the Hawaii youth correctional facility is adequately trained in key areas. These areas include suicide prevention, the proper use of force, and working with children with special needs, mental health disorders, substance abuse issues, or a combination thereof.

Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from Blueprint for Change, the Hawaii Juvenile Justice Project, and Hawaii Youth Services Network. The Office of Youth Services and the Department of the Attorney General submitted comments regarding this measure.

Your Committee finds that the State and the United States Department of Justice have executed a Memorandum of Agreement regarding improvements to bring the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility into federal compliance.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure to include a caveat that nothing in this measure is intended to require the Department of Human Services or the Office of Youth Services to take any action that conflicts with any provision of the foregoing Memorandum of Agreement.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2688, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2688, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.