STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3016

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1647

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1647, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO APPROPRIATIONS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds as grants-in-aid to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu for the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit, Victim Witness Assistance Program, Veterans Treatment Court, Drug Court, and Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement Program.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, Crime Victim Compensation Commission, Kailua Neighborhood Board, and eight individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

     Your Committees find that the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit addresses the disproportionate amount of serious crimes committed against the public by a relatively small number of "career criminals", while the Victim Witness Assistance Program provides information, assistance, and support services to victims and witnesses of crimes.  Additionally, Drug Court, Veterans Treatment Court, and Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement Program provide critical services to the State's citizens, including minimizing recidivism.  Your Committees further find that money spent on these programs is an efficient use of resources and that these programs provide the State's citizens with support services and swift and effective justice, lessen caseloads and long court delays, and reduce recidivism.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by changing the expending agency for the funds appropriated for the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit, Victim Witness Assistance Program, Veterans Treatment Court, Drug Court, and Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement Program from the Department of the Attorney General to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1647, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1647, H.D. 2, 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, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair