STAND. COM. REP. NO. 166

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 910

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, to which was referred S.B. No. 910 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to better prepare incarcerated persons for reentry into the community and reduce overcrowding in state correctional facilities.

     Specifically, this measure appropriates an unspecified amount of general funds in each year of the 2007-2009 fiscal biennium to establish a pilot project for a day reporting center.  The center will be under the Department of Public Safety and will be available to serve two-hundred offenders with six months to one year left on their sentences.  Offenders assigned to the day reporting center shall live at home, but be required to report to the center for training, supervision, counseling, and other skills development programs as deemed necessary.  This measure also requires a written report on the pilot program from the Director of Public Safety no later than twenty days prior to the start of the 2009 Regular Session.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Public Safety and the Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition.

     Your Committee finds that recidivism can be greatly diminished if offenders exiting our correctional facilities are provided with transitional counseling and skills.  Federal agencies, including the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, suggest transitional programs as best practices in addressing criminality.  Inadequate transition planning, on the other hand, can result in the placement of the offender in the same situation that brought about the criminal behavior, increasing the odds of relapse, rearrest and a further compromise of public safety.  Given the high percentage of offenders with substance abuse problems and mental illness, these transitional programs should include substance abuse treatment, family counseling and mental health counseling as well as the typical vocational and job skills training. 

     Your Committee further finds that a secondary benefit of the day reporting center would be a reduction in the overcrowding problems at our state correctional facilities.  By allowing qualified offenders to live at home during their last six months to one year of their sentence, up to two hundred beds will be freed up for offenders who pose a risk to public safety and require more restrictive environments.

     Your Committee also finds that past attempts at day reporting centers in Hawaii have been unsuccessful due to lack of funding and space.  Therefore, it is appropriate to make an appropriation sufficient to carry out the functions of the proposed day center pilot program.

     Your Committee has amended this measure to extend the pilot program from a one-year to a two-year program and to correct typographical errors.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 910, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 910, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair