SB910 SD1

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that some criminal offenders, due to the nature of their crimes, will remain in prison for life. However, a significant majority will serve their sentence and be released. Over ninety-eight per cent of criminal offenders in Hawaii will eventually return to our communities. During fiscal year 2003, the department of public safety released 10,629 offenders.

The legislature finds that, in order for an offender to successfully reenter the community, the offender must have access to a full continuum of services during incarceration and immediately upon release. These services include education, continuing education, vocational training, substance abuse treatment, follow-up treatment services, support with finding housing and employment, and help with family issues and other elements of life after incarceration.

During incarceration, offenders may qualify to be transferred to a minimum security correctional facility to participate, as appropriate, in treatment-based services, such as substance abuse treatment at Waiawa correctional facility or sex offender treatment at Kulani correctional facility. When an offender attains community custody status, the offender may participate in furlough, extended furlough, transition, and reintegration programs in the community. These types of programs constitute the latter segment of a continuum of services that help offenders reenter the community as productive, law-abiding citizens.

Furlough and work release programs include the Laumaka work furlough program, located adjacent to the Oahu community correctional center. Extended furlough programs involve offenders who live and work in the community, but are required to return to a correctional facility during weekday or weekend evenings. Others on extended furlough may live at home and be supervised through an electronic monitoring device. Transition and reintegration programs are usually located in the community and are provided by community-based agencies such as TJ Mahoney and the Big Island Substance Abuse Council, which offer residential transition and reintegration services for female offenders.

The legislature further finds that extended furlough programs could ease overcrowding by freeing up scarce bed space for offenders who require more restrictive environments and pose a risk to public safety. A type of extended furlough program is the day reporting center. Unlike the community correctional centers, or jails, a day reporting center is non-residential and offenders are required to report to the centers but return to their homes to sleep at night.

The typical day reporting program operates five days per week and has a duration of approximately six months. Day reporting centers emphasize: intensive supervision, frequent substance abuse testing, and substance abuse follow-up education in group sessions; anger management, parenting, and help with obtaining education classes; vocational assessment, employment training, and life skills development; and assistance with various issues of adjusting to life in the community. The first day reporting center was established in England in 1974. The first American center opened in 1986 in Hamden, Massachusetts. By 1995, one hundred fourteen day reporting centers were established in twenty-two states.

Hawaii does not currently have a day reporting center. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the department of public safety attempted to create a day reporting center in module twenty of the Oahu community correctional center, but overcrowding necessitated that the space be used for housing offenders. Attempts were also made to use the Hale Nani reintegration center on the island of Hawaii as a day reporting center, but again, the space was needed for offender housing and other programs.

The purpose of this Act is to establish a two-year, pilot day reporting center at an existing state site, facility, or building designated by the governor for use as a day reporting center.

SECTION 2. The department of public safety, through its intake service centers and education divisions, shall establish a day reporting center that will be available to two hundred offenders who have six months to one year left to serve on their sentence. The center shall offer a continuum of services to prepare offenders for transition and reintegration into the community. The center staff shall consist of a program director, counselors, social workers, and other professional and clerical staff. The ideal ratio of counselors to offenders shall be one counselor for every twenty-five offenders. The ideal ratio of social workers to offenders shall be one social worker for every fifteen offenders. The department of public safety may contract with a private or not-for-profit agency for the necessary services to carry out the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. The department shall submit, no later than twenty days prior to the start of the 2009 and 2010 regular sessions of the legislature, a written report on:

(1) The outcome of the pilot project;

(2) Cost analysis and an accounting of expenses;

(3) Relevant data on program participants

(4) Program and management evaluations; and

(5) Any other pertinent information, recommendations, or proposed legislation, if any, to determine whether the program should be continued.

SECTION 4. 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 2007-2008, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009, for the establishment of a two-year pilot day reporting center.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of public safety, who may contract with a private or not-for-profit agency to operate the day reporting center for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2007.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	910
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII