STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2443

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2866

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2866 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMPREHENSIVE OFFENDER REENTRY SYSTEM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to create the Offender Reentry Office to oversee the comprehensive offender reentry system and restore the purpose of the intake service centers to screen, evaluate, and classify the admission of persons to community correctional centers.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Community Alliance on Prisons, and Drug Policy Forum of Hawai‘i.

     Your Committee finds that existing statutes require that the intake service centers also provide reentry services.  Chapter 353H, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to the comprehensive offender reentry system, was enacted specifically to address an offender reentry system.  However, your Committee believes that little has been done to implement offender reentry programs and services which may account for, among other things, prison overcrowding since inmates cannot get the programs and services required to release them from incarceration and onto parole.

     Your Committee further finds that the responsibility of providing reentry services requires an entirely different set of skills than intake services.  Rather than combining the two functions into the same unit, this measure separates the offender reentry services into a separate office that is intended to provide enhanced effectiveness of reentry services to reduce recidivism and enhance public safety by improving programs and services for offenders exiting correctional facilities.

     According to testimony of the Department of Public Safety, the Offender Reentry Office will specialize in designing, monitoring, and evaluating programs and services to reduce recidivism, prevent further victimization, and enhance public safety.  A variety of programs and services are essential during an offender's transition to the community to enable an offender to acquire the appropriate skills and treatment to re-enter the community and reduce recidivism.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Requiring the Offender Reentry Office to work closely and collaborate with community partners such as organizations, businesses, and concerned citizens;

(2)  Reconstituting the Reentry Commission, established by Act 24, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2009 (Act 24), as follows:

          (A)  Three members to be selected by the Governor, one of whom shall be a rehabilitated former inmate;

          (B)  Three members to be selected by the Senate President;

          (C)  Three members to be selected by the Speaker of the House of Representatives; and

          (D)  Making the Reentry Coordinator an ex officio nonvoting member;

     (3)  Amending Act 24 to require the Reentry Commission to ensure that the comprehensive offender reentry system under chapter 353H, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is implemented as soon as practicable to provide programs and services that result in the release of inmates onto parole when maximum terms have been served instead of delaying the release for lack of programs and services;

     (4)  Further amending Act 24 to change the repeal date of the Reentry Commission from July 1, 2014, to December 1, 2015; and

     (5)  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 Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2866, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2866, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair