STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2346

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2343

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, to which was referred S.B. No. 2343 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PAROLE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Public Safety to establish an earned-time program that provides incentives for inmates to enroll in and complete rehabilitation programs while incarcerated so that the inmate may qualify for parole prior to the expiration of the inmate's minimum term of incarceration set by the Hawaii Paroling Authority.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Community Alliance on Prisons, Hawaii Community College, and three individual citizens.  Testimony in opposition of this measure was submitted by the Department of Public Safety, the Hawaii Paroling Authority, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, and the Department of the Attorney General.  Comments on this measure were submitted by Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc.

     Your Committee finds that earned-time programs do benefit inmates, the prisons, and the community since they require inmates to complete various rehabilitation programs that give them the opportunity to improve upon their education, vocational training, or physical and emotional behaviors.  Completion of earned-time programs enables the inmates to be better equipped to reintegrate themselves back into the community upon their release from prison.  The earned-time programs also benefit the prisons by reducing the inmate population at the respective prison, thus helping to reduce any existing, or potential, inmate overcrowding issues. 

     However, your Committee finds that there must be a balance between providing earned-time programs to inmates and having the inmates satisfy their restitution requirements to the victims of their crimes.  Thus, any earned-time program that is recommended by the Department of Public Safety needs to address the issue of exactly how much earned-time the inmates will receive upon the completion of each program that can be used toward reducing the time it takes to be eligible for parole.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting its contents and requiring, instead, that the Department of Public Safety:

          (A)  Consider and examine earned-time programs for Hawaii inmates incarcerated in Hawaii and on the mainland; and

          (B)  Develop an earned-time program for the foregoing inmates;

     (2)  Amending its effective date to be upon approval; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purpose of clarity.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2343, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2343, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair