STAND. COM. REP. NO. 212

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1294

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1294 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE TRANSFER OF YOUTH TO AN ADULT CORRECTIONAL FACILITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to repeal section 352-28, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which authorizes the Executive Director of the Office of Youth Services, with the approval of the Family Court, to transfer a committed youth from the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility to an adult correctional facility.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Office of Youth Services, Community Alliance on Prisons, and three individuals.

     Your Committees find that this measure will ensure that youth committed to the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility will not be transferred, for disciplinary or other reasons, to adult correctional facilities, where they would be exposed to serious adult offenders and subjected to possible physical, mental, and sexual assault.

     Your Committees further find that this measure will simplify Hawaii's efforts to comply with the federal Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act, which requires that juveniles being securely detained must be "sight and sound" separate from adult detainees.  Violation of this requirement would jeopardize future federal funding.

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1294, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1294, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

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

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair