STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1081

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 519

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 519, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INMATES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to facilitate eventual community reentry of inmates by requiring the return of all out-of-state inmates by December 31, 2015, and to require the Department of Public Safety to plan, design, and construct facilities sufficient to house all inmates by this date.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by two private organizations and two individuals.  Testimony in opposition of this measure was submitted by one state agency.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that the rehabilitation of criminal offenders is more effective and reduces the rate of recidivism if the offender's incarceration is as close as possible to their home.  Your Committee also finds that the return of Hawaii inmates incarcerated out-of-state to Hawaii will eliminate the State's obligation to pay another jurisdiction substantial sums of money to detain Hawaii inmates.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Requiring the Director of Public Safety to return to Hawaii all women inmates that are detained or incarcerated in out-of-state prison or correctional facilities by December 31, 2011;

     (2)  Requiring the Director of Public Safety to permit no more than a total of five hundred inmates from Hawaii to be incarcerated in out-of-state prison or correctional facilities by December 31, 2015;

     (3)  Requiring the Department of Public Safety to pursue the viability of developing alternative programs or forms of incarceration, such as electronic monitoring, to detain or house the Hawaii inmates returning to Hawaii from a mainland prison or correctional facility; and

     (4)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purpose of clarity.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 519, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 519, H.D. 1, 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 and Military Affairs,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair