STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1104

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 44

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 44, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROSTITUTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a misdemeanor offense of solicitation of prostitution near schools or public parks if, within seven hundred fifty feet of a school or a public park, a person offers or agrees to pay a fee to another person to engage in sexual conduct.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education; Hawaii Public Housing Authority; Downtown Neighborhood Board No. 13; EAH Housing; Kukui Kauhale, Inc., Mun Lun Chinese School; Safeway; and three individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of the Public Defender, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i, and Libertarian Party of Hawaii.

     Your Committee is supportive of this measure as a means of ensuring that the public is not subjected to viewing acts of prostitution near schools and public parks, where children are often present.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 44, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 44, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair