SB911

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	911
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to prisons.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii's prison system is bursting at the seams with a swelling inmate population. Since 1995, the department of public safety has been transporting prisoners to facilities in Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Minnesota, Arizona, and Tennessee. Approximately eighteen hundred Hawaii inmates are housed in out-of-state correctional facilities each year. That is nearly half of the Hawaii prison population. Although this is a temporary solution, the State cannot afford to transport inmates to mainland facilities indefinitely.

According to the department of public safety's 2004 annual report, forty-one per cent of male inmates and forty-four per cent of female inmates are classified as minimum security or community custody level inmates.

However, due to budget constraints, Hawaii has only two minimum-security prisons, Waiawa correctional facility on Oahu and Kulani correctional facility on the island of Hawaii. Both Waiawa and Kulani often exceed their operational capacity.

The legislature finds that a study is needed to determine the best possible sites in the State for a new minimum security prison facility.

The purpose of this Act is to require the department of public safety to conduct a study to explore and determine three sites in the State for a minimum security prison facility.

SECTION 2. (a) The department of public safety shall undertake a study to explore and determine three sites within the State for a minimum security prison to house a minimum of five hundred inmates and to include an intensive mandatory substance abuse treatment program. Of the three sites determined by the department of public safety, two sites shall be located on Oahu and the third site shall be located on one of the neighbor islands. In determining the three sites, the department of public safety may consider expansion of existing facilities. The study shall include, but not be limited to, a list of all sites considered by the department of public safety and an evaluation as to the feasibility of planning, designing, and constructing a suitable minimum security facility at the three sites identified, and the estimated costs of planning, designing, and constructing the facility at each of the identified sites.

(b) The department of public safety shall complete the study mandated in subsection (a) by December 15, 2007, and shall submit a report to the legislature of its findings and recommendations no later than January 1, 2008, including any proposed legislation to implement the recommendations found in the report.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________