STAND. COM. REP. NO. 431

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 284

       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 Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 284 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a Hawaiian cultural restoration program for non-violent inmates to participate in a work force dedicated to the preservation and restoration of historic Hawaiian sites and other areas as determined by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from two state departments, one entity, and one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from one state agency.

     The intent of your Committees is to establish under the Department of Public Safety a temporary pilot program to be known as the Hawaiian Cultural Restoration Program that will provide working opportunities for non-violent inmates to participate in the restoration and rebuilding of sites that are of cultural significance in Hawaiian history.  Inmates selected for the pilot program would be able-bodied individuals capable of heavy construction work, including the building of a barracks and other living facilities to house the pilot program participants near the work site.

     Your Committees note that this measure is particularly timely in light of the Honolulu Star Advertiser article of February 14, 2011, entitled "Prisons become key source of labor" explaining that private and public groups hit hard by the recession are increasingly hiring less costly inmate workers.

     Your Committees note testimony indicating that prison labor does not normally do historic preservation work in the technical sense, because it does not have the archeological expertise.  The Office of Hawaiian Affairs in its oral testimony indicated that it is emphasizing the compilation of a database of historic sites but is not active in doing preservation work.  Therefore, your Committees believe that the Department of Public Safety and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs need to involve the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources in preservation work as envisioned by this measure.

     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 Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 284, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 284, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________ BRICKWOOD GALUTERIA, Chair

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair