STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2273

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2950

       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. 2950 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE HONOLULU FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make a grant-in-aid appropriation to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu for the Honolulu Family Justice Center.   

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney and Honolulu Department of Community Services.

     Your Committee finds that a grant-in-aid to the Honolulu Family Justice Center is necessary and is in the interests of promoting public safety and welfare.

     The Family Justice Center is the product of the battered women's movement in the United States and over twenty years of efforts by domestic violence intervention professionals to mainstream aggressive intervention strategies into the civil and criminal justice systems.  Communities have identified the benefits of bringing together advocates, law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, and other intervention service-provider professionals to work together in serving victims of domestic violence and holding offenders accountable.

     Currently, over sixty Family Justice Centers have been established across the United States and several centers

are operating overseas.  The Family Justice Center model has been identified as a "best practice" in delivering services to victims of domestic abuse.

     The Honolulu Family Justice Center is targeting a July 2012 date to open Phase I of the Center.  The Honolulu Family Justice Center will provide services to victims of domestic violence, sex assault, and elder abuse.  An important service component will address the needs of immigrant victims.  Efforts are underway to identify and locate space for Phase I. 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an appropriation amount of $500,000.

     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. 2950, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2950, 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, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair