HB2945

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that offenders who receive program and employment opportunities in prison prior to being released back into the community have a much greater chance of not returning to prison. Inmates who receive these opportunities while they are classified as minimum security risk or community custody are more likely to successfully return to society and participate as productive, law-abiding citizens.

Inmates who are a minimum security risk have demonstrated they can function with minimal supervision in a correctional setting or in the community under direct supervision. Inmates who are community custody are eligible to participate in community release programs such as work furlough, extended furlough, or residential transitional living centers.

Hawaii has only two minimum security prisons, Waiawa correctional facility on Oahu and Kulani correctional facility on the island of Hawaii. Waiawa was designed for two hundred ninety-four inmates and Kulani has an operational capacity of one hundred sixty beds. The legislature finds that this total of four hundred fifty-four beds for inmates who are ready to be reintegrated into the community is woefully lacking.

According to the department of public safety's 2006 annual report, forty-eight per cent of male inmates and sixty-one per cent of female inmates are classified as minimum security risk or are considered community custody. Based on the department's January 7, 2007, population figures, this means that there are currently two thousand nine hundred eighty-two inmates who qualify for reintegration programs through educational opportunities, substance abuse treatment, vocational training, employment opportunities, or workline projects in the community.

The purpose of this Act is to increase the use of a programs approach to inmate case management and develop more work opportunities for inmates to benefit the community.

SECTION 2. The department of public safety shall adopt a policy that mandates all inmates to participate in in-facility programs; provided that medical and mental health concerns are considered when waiving an inmate's participation. This programs approach to case management will better prepare all inmates for educational and employment opportunities when they are released back into our neighborhoods and communities.

SECTION 3. In-facility workline programs and in-community workline programs provide productive, mutually beneficial results for the inmate, the facility, and the community. The department of public safety is directed to increase the scope and number of workline programs it currently operates at its prison and jail facilities.

SECTION 4. The department of public safety shall submit a status report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular sessions of 2009 and 2010 on the status of the implementation of the requirements of this Act, including cost implications, statutory or other legal impediments, and proposals for new legislation, if needed.

SECTION 5. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009 for developing and operating in-facility workline programs at each correctional facility and in-community workline projects throughout the State.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of public safety for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2945
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII