STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2442

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2524

       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 Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2524 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PRISONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to create separate forensic treatment facilities for the mentally ill in all community correctional centers and to terminate the practice of housing mentally ill prisoners with the general prison population or in solitary confinement.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Public Safety, the Community Alliance on Prisons, the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, and three individual citizens.

     Your Committees find that creating separate facilities to house and provide treatment to mentally ill prisoners is necessary for their safety and well-being.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount; and

     (2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2025, to facilitate further discussion.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2524, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2524, 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 Health,

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair