STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2311

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2720

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2720 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WARRANTS ISSUED BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF YOUTH SERVICES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Executive Director of the Office of Youth Services to issue warrants for the arrest and return to custody of wards paroled from the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.  Additionally, this measure authorizes county police and State law enforcement officers to arrest any ward who absconds from furlough or escapes from the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Services Office of Youth Services, and the City and County of Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.  Comments on this measure were submitted by The Judiciary, State of Hawaii.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committees find that once a youth is paroled from the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, there is very little that can be done if they violate the terms of their parole unless they commit a new act in violation of the law.  Your Committees also find that it is important to law enforcement agencies and the community to be able to remand youth offenders back into custody if they are in violation of the terms of their parole for their own guidance as well as the safety of the community at large. 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Correcting the reference to "a person over nineteen years of age" to "a person nineteen years of age";

     (2)  Clarifying the authority of the Director of the Office of Youth Services to "revoke" parole, rather than "grant" parole, to ensure that prior court approval is obtained when specifically required in the commitment order;

     (3)  Deleting the words, "in like manner as ordinary criminal process" in reference to how law enforcement should execute warrants to arrest and return paroled wards to actual custody; and

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive stylistic amendments for purposes of clarity and consistency, including setting forth language of the section to be repealed.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Safety and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2720, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2720, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Public Safety and Military Affairs,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair