STAND. COM. REP. NO.  645-14

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

RE:   H.B. No. 2205

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2205 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CRIME,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to decrease the incidence of property crimes by raising the mandatory minimum term of imprisonment upon conviction of Habitual Property Crime to two years if an offender is sentenced to probation.

The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Kaua‘i, and numerous concerned individuals testified in support of this bill.  The Office of the Public Defender, Community Alliance on Prisons, and a concerned individual testified in opposition to this bill.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by removing the probation option for a person convicted of Habitual Property Crime, thereby requiring the imposition of an indeterminate sentence of up to five years.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2205, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2205, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

____________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair