STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2808

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2592

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2592 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys to the Department of Public Safety to establish a two-year diversion and reentry pilot project to provide an alternative to incarceration for nonviolent offenders with substance-abuse issues, by diverting them from incarceration into a coordinated system of community-based drug treatment programs and reentry support services.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Community Alliance on Prisons, the Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, and two individuals.  Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.

Your Committee finds that certain nonviolent drug offenders can more effectively be treated with substance-abuse treatment programs rather than incarceration.  Your Committee further finds that diverting nonviolent drug offenders from incarceration into community-based drug treatment programs will produce long-term savings and a reduction in recidivism.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Changing the appropriation amount to an unspecified sum;

(2)  Requiring the Department of Public Safety to report on the pilot project;

(3)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

(4)  Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2592, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2592, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair