STAND. COM. REP. NO.  222-14

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

RE:   H.B. No. 2363

      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 Public Safety, to which was referred H.B. No. 2363 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a two-year pilot project to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of providing an alternative to incarceration by diverting low-risk offenders with substance-abuse issues from incarceration into a coordinated system of community-based treatment programs, community organizations, and reentry support services.

The Department of Public Safety, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Community Alliance on Prisons, and The Salvation Army Addiction Treatment Services supported this measure.  The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu opposed this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the participants in the pilot project will be male and female nonviolent, low-risk drug offenders who are eligible for early release or parole, and not low-risk male and female offenders diverted from the Oahu Community Correctional Center;

     (2)  Clarifying the role of the Department of Public Safety as it relates to the purchasing and contracting of necessary services to support the pilot project;

     (3)  Clarifying the amount of time that participants shall spend in community-based treatment under the pilot project;

     (4)  Adding definitions for "community-based treatment" and "nonviolent, low-risk drug offender";

     (5)  Replacing the appropriation amounts with unspecified amounts for the pilot project;

     (6)  Deleting all references to diversion in the pilot project, and clarifying that the pilot project shall be known as the Reentry Pilot Project for Nonviolent, Low-Risk Drug Offenders;

     (7)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2020, to promote further discussion; and

     (8)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

     Your Committee respectfully requests that the Committee on Finance consider appropriating $500,000 for fiscal year 2014-2015 and the same sum for fiscal year 2015-2016 for the pilot project known as the Reentry Pilot Project for Nonviolent, Low-Risk Drug Offenders.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2363, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2363, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety,

____________________________

HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair