SCR160

WHEREAS, Hawaii follows an indeterminate sentencing model in which an offender, if sentenced to prison for a felony offense, is sentenced to the maximum term authorized by law, and thereafter, a minimum term is established that the offender must serve before being eligible for release on parole; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature has enacted numerous provisions requiring the imposition of a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment for a variety of felony offenses, and under these provisions, an offender may not be paroled from prison until, at the earliest, the mandatory minimum term has been served; and

WHEREAS, the operational capacity of Hawaii's prison facilities is 1,878 inmates; however, those facilities housed an average of 1,691 inmates during fiscal year 2007, while approximately two thousand three hundred inmates were housed in mainland correctional facilities at an annual cost in excess of $56,000,000, with another two hundred inmates housed at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu at an annual cost of $8,000,000; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Paroling Authority has established policies by which it sets the minimum term that an offender must serve prior to release on parole, reviews the offender's case immediately prior to release on parole, and also acts to take back into custody those offenders who violate the terms and conditions of the offender's release on parole; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Paroling Authority has approximately forty-five parole officer positions authorized, each of whom carries an approximate caseload of sixty to eighty parolees; and

WHEREAS, many offenders have difficulty maintaining stable housing, employment, and sobriety and may fail to comply with the terms of conditions of parole by neglecting to advise their parole officer of a change of address or employment, fail drug or alcohol tests, or even commit another crime; and

WHEREAS, a 2005 study by the Urban Institute suggests that supervised parole may not play a significant role in reducing recidivism; and

WHEREAS, the Urban Institute study shows that, while supervised parole works best with female offenders, offenders with few prior arrests, public order offenders, and those imprisoned for violating a condition of earlier parole, the difference was a matter of percentage points; and

WHEREAS, a significant portion of the prison population is comprised of previously paroled offenders who have been returned to prison for violating one or more terms and conditions of parole; and

WHEREAS, the growth of Hawaii's prison population continues unabated, with increasing demands for more mainland and local prison space; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to review parole policies in Hawaii and in other states to determine the extent to which Hawaii's parole policies contribute to Hawaii's burgeoning prison population; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau is also requested to review:

(1) Criteria used to consider offenders for release on parole;

(2) Criteria used to determine terms and conditions of parole and level of supervision;

(3) Criteria used to determine whether a parole violator will be taken back into custody for a parole violation; and

(4) Rates of recidivism for offenders according to gender, prior criminal history, substance abuse history, type of offense for which paroled, type of supervision, and new offense; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Public Safety and the Hawaii Paroling Authority are requested to cooperate with the Legislative Reference Bureau in performing the review by providing access to policy materials and information and aggregated, non-confidential statistical information about paroled offenders; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to submit a report to the Legislature of its findings no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2009; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Director of Public Safety, and the Chair of the Hawaii Paroling Authority.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Parole Policies; Prison Population

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	160
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII