STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2551

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2344

       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. 2344 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Public Safety to establish performance indicators to ensure that the Department is in compliance with the Community Safety Act of 2007 and to report those results on a monthly basis to the Legislature.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Community Alliance on Prisons, Hawaii Community College, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai‘i, and three individual citizens.  Testimony in opposition of this measure was submitted by the Department of Public Safety.

     Your Committee finds that it is important for the Department of Public Safety to monitor and track the progress of their various reentry and rehabilitative programs.  Requiring the Department to track the outcome of programs on a quarterly basis will enable the Department to be in compliance with the Community Safety Act of 2007.  Your Committee finds that requiring the reports to be submitted in a timely fashion every quarter, creates an effective balance between getting the Legislature the necessary evaluative information on a regular basis without being administratively burdensome to the Department.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the Department of Public Safety's reporting requirements to the Legislature from monthly to quarterly; and

     (2)  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. 2344, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2344, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair