STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2275

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3054

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. 3054 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Auditor to conduct a financial and management audit of the operations of the Department of Public Safety's commissaries, as well as the operations of commissaries in out-of-state contracted correctional facilities where Hawaii inmates are confined.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and four individuals.

     Your Committee finds that commissary operations at correctional facilities in Hawaii and out-of-state contracted correctional facilities have never been audited.  There is no existing information about such things as prices, overhead expenses, and profits, particularly if the commissary is a privately contracted enterprise in a mainland prison.  An audit is critical to determining if there is undue mark-up in prices and if there is, where the profits are being applied.

     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. 3054 and recommends that it pass Second Reading 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