STAND. COM. REP. NO.  697

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   H.B. No. 467

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Public Safety & Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 467 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Public Safety and the Office of Youth Services for the expansion of gender-responsive community based programs for women and girls.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, the Community Alliance on Prisons, the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, the Hawaii State Democratic Women's Caucus, the Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Hawaii Women at Work, the Hawaii Youth Services Network, and a private citizen.  The Department of Public Safety and the Office of Youth Services submitted testimony in support of the intent of the measure.

     Your Committee finds that pathways to crime are different for women and girls than they are for men and boys.  Incarcerating women and girls in environments that are designed primarily for men and boys, without appropriate programming to address their needs, causes recidivism in the form of parole violations and minor offenses.  Women and girls need comprehensive reentry and case management services that link substance abuse, criminal justice, public health, housing, and employment services.  Community based programs for women and girls throughout the State are inadequate even though they are less costly and more effective than incarceration.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the appropriations in sections 2 and 3 to unspecified amounts to facilitate further discussion in the Committee on Finance.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety & Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 467, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 467, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety & Military Affairs,

____________________________

CINDY EVANS, Chair