STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1796

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 19

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 19 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY TO ADOPT POLICIES TO PREVENT THE TRANSFER OF INCARCERATED PARENTS OF MINOR CHILDREN TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES ON THE MAINLAND,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to protect parent-child relationships of children of incarcerated parents.

     Specifically, this measure requests the Department of Public Safety to adopt policies to prevent the transfer of incarcerated parents of minor children to correctional facilities on the mainland.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Community Alliance on Prisons, Hawaii Youth Services Network, and four individuals.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Public Safety.

     Your Committees find that an increased focus needs to be placed on the children of incarcerated parents to maintain a parent-child bond.  It is estimated that there are approximately 3,163 parents of 6,665 children in Hawaii's prison system.  Approximately half of Hawaii's incarcerated felons are sent to private correctional facilities on the mainland making it difficult for them to maintain contact with their families.       According to the testimony, the strengthening of family relationships has a positive effect on recidivism.  Studies also indicate that therapeutic involvement with families during incarceration builds better and stronger relationships between the incarcerated parent's children and the incarcerated parent once the parent is released.

     Your Committees are also concerned with the practice of triple-bunking inmates in Hawaii correctional facilities due to overcrowding.  While your Committees strongly believe that parent-child relationships should be fostered and maintained throughout the parents' incarceration, it is not the intent of your Committees that the policy encouraged by this measure result in an increase in triple bunking in Hawaii facilities.

     This measure has been amended to allow flexibility for parents who are incarcerated on the mainland and wish to stay where they are.  This measure has also been amended to provide that there should not be additional triple bunking in Hawaii correctional facilities as a result of this measure.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 19, as amended herein, and recommend its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 19, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair