STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2502

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2083

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Public Safety and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2083 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE SUPERVISION OF ADULT OFFENDERS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to increase the membership of the State Council for Interstate Adult Offender Supervision (Council), appropriate funds for a coordinator position for the Council, and allow the Judiciary to assess fees on probationer and parolee transfer applications.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary and the Hawaii Paroling Authority.

     The State Council for Interstate Adult Offender Supervision oversees Hawaii's participation in the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision, and is responsible for the development of policy concerning operations and procedures of the Commission.  The rules of the Commission govern the transfer and supervision of probationers and parolees between states.

     The intent of this measure is to improve the operation and effectiveness of the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision.  In this regard, adding the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, the State Attorney General, and the State Public Defender to the Council, will aid oversight of interstate transfers by adding members who are intricately involved in the criminal justice system.  Furthermore, imposing a fee on transfer applications, as authorized by Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision Rule 4.107, is reasonable in light of the time spent in processing such transfers and to help defray the costs of the coordinator position established by this measure, which is needed to process transfers on a timely basis and in conformity with the interstate compact.

     Your Committees have amended this measure on the recommendation of the Judiciary and the Hawaii Paroling Authority by:

     (1)  Clarifying that fees collected shall be deposited into the general fund;

     (2)  Exempting the Compact Administrator from the statutorily mandated term limit of boards and commission members;

     (3)  Establishing one full-time coordinator position for the State Council for Interstate Adult Offender Supervision, to be appointed by the Judiciary; and

     (4)  Changing the expending agency for the appropriation for the coordinator position from the Department of Public Safety to the Judiciary.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2083, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2083, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety and Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair