STAND. COM. REP. NO. 145

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 546

       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 S.B. No. 546 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Public Safety to establish, develop, and administer an electronic monitoring pilot program for committed offenders that would allow eligible nonviolent offenders to live and work in the community while being electronically monitored.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by four private organizations and three individuals.  Testimony in opposition of this measure was submitted by one state agency.  Copies of written testimony are available for review on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that establishing and implementing an electronic monitoring pilot program for nonviolent offenders to participate in the community is a cost-effective approach for the State to make in administering the criminal justice system.  Your Committee further finds that the pilot program will help to reintegrate the nonviolent offenders back into the community in a safe and secure manner and also help to reduce the offender's likelihood of recidivism by providing them with a job.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying the global positioning satellite tracking devices that are to be used in the pilot program shall be able to monitor and pinpoint an inmate's location whether they are located inside or outside any building;

     (2)  Reducing the maximum number of participants in the pilot program from fifty inmates to thirty inmates;

     (3)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050;

     (4)  Revising internal references to the appropriate sections of the Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

     (5)  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 and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 546, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 546, 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