HCR309

WHEREAS, the Second Chance Center / Second Chance Program (SCC/SCP) is a highly specialized, state-wide, secure, long-term, multijurisdictional facility which provides Federal, state, tribal, magistrate and metro court judges with an alternative to jail/prison in a secure environment; and

WHEREAS, candidate eligibility criteria for acceptance in the SCC includes that the subject:

(1) Must be male;

(2) Must exhibit a serious substance abuse problem;

(3) Must be facing, or have remaining on his sentence at least six (6) months, preferably one year;

(4) Must not have any serious medical issues, be under psychiatric care or on psychotropic drugs;

(5) Must not be facing charges involving a serious violent offense;

(6) Must not be a sex offender;

and;

WHEREAS, the Second Chance Program (SCP) utilizes a cognitive-behavioral therapy approach, emphasizing positive change through the development of pro-social attitudes such as self control, critical reasoning, development of moral reasoning skills, development of life skills, self esteem, problem solving, coping resources; and

WHEREAS, the SCP utilizes four modules:

(1) The Drug Rehabilitation Module, where withdrawal from drugs and a reformatting of the drug "biochemical personality" is accomplished by using vitamins, minerals, and specialized techniques to decrease the trauma associated with addictive drug withdrawal, as well as a sauna-based body detoxification regimen;

(2) The Education Module, which uses the breakthrough study technology from Applied Scholastics International, permitting individuals to be trained at high levels of proficiency; and

(3) The Self Respect Module, which addresses personal ethics and the exact reason a person began his criminal activity; and

(4) The Life Skills Module, which prepares and equips patients for reintegration into the world;

and;

WHEREAS, the costs of the criminal justice system continue to escalate despite a decreasing crime rate, and the SCC model was created to add a previously missing element in the rehabilitation continuum for offenders; and

WHEREAS, evidence based data shows governments at federal, state, county and local levels are faced with rising criminal justice costs, increasing jail and prison populations, flat to slightly increasing recidivism rates of 67% or more, and a steadily increasing number of inmates released annually; and

WHEREAS, over the last 25 years, studies have shown that treatment works to reduce drug use and crimes committed by drug-dependent individuals, and that drug abusers who have been through treatment are more likely to have jobs; and

WHEREAS, drug treatment programs in prisons can succeed in preventing patient's return to criminal behavior, particularly if they are linked to community-based programs that continue treatment when the client leaves prison; and

WHEREAS, the economic cost of drug abuse in 2002 was estimated at $180.9 billion, representing the use of resources to address health and crime consequences as well as the loss of potential productivity from disability, death and withdrawal from the legitimate workforce; and

WHEREAS, the costs of drug abuse have increased an average of 5.3% per year from 1992 through 2002, being slightly more than the 5.1% annual growth in the gross domestic product for the entire economy; and

WHEREAS, since 1995, SCP has worked extensively with the Department of Corrections for the State of Baja California, Mexico, in the development and implementation of a prison-based drug and criminal rehabilitation program in Ensenada State Prison (which currently houses 1,000 inmates), and an independent ongoing analysis of the State's recidivism rates by the University of Baja, since the inception of the SCP and over a six-year period, has shown a drop from 83% to under 10% for those who participated in even part of the SCP; and

WHEREAS, the program has resulted in a drop in prison violence and a dramatic increase in the safety of staff, with the Attorney General of Baja and the Chief of Police of Ensenada reporting a 55% reduction in the community wide crime-rate, which they attribute solely to the Second Chance Program; and

WHEREAS, the Ensenada Prison was one of the worst prisons in North America with a high level of prison violence and 90% heroin drug use by the inmates; and

WHEREAS, due to SCP's success, the Baja California government expanded the program to all its facilities, including the infamous Tijuana Prison, resulting in a 15% rehabilitation rate in just sixteen months, and later, over the course of six years, the treatment of of 4,000 inmates, with 2,000 persons being released from prison; and

WHEREAS, these results have been achieved at extremely low costs in comparison to the traditional attempts at combined drug and crime rehabilitation using expensive, radical, chronic drug therapy and third party counseling, estimated at $55.00/client, much lower than the current cost of incarceration in the State Hawaii; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2007, the Senate concurring, that this body respectfully requests Hawaii courts to allow a sentencing option for local repeat drug offenders or drug-related offenders to attend the Second Chance Center Program at the secure drug treatment facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so long as they meet the basic eligibility requirements; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that duly certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to:

(1) The Hawaii Judiciary;

(2) The Hawaii State Attorney General;

(3) The US Attorney General;

(4) The Governor of the State of Hawaii;

(5) The Governor of the State of New Mexico;

(6) The Hawaii Department of Corrections;

(7) The Office of Hawaiian Affairs;

(8) The University of Hawaii;

(9) The Federation of American Scientists;

(10) The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL);

(11) EUROPOL;

(12) The President of the United States of America.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Rehabilitation Sentencing Options

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	309
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII