STAND. COM. REP. NO. 692

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 310

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 310, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to reduce hospitalization and incarceration of persons with severe mental illness through the establishment of an assisted community treatment program.

     Your Committee did not accept any testimony on this measure.

     Your Committee finds that that there are serious problems of high incarceration and hospitalization rates of those with severe mental illness.  Assisted community treatment provides an opportunity for people with serious mental illness to be treated in the least restrictive setting and reduces the trend toward criminalizing mental illness.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the definitions of "obviously ill" in sections 334-1 and 334-122, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and inserting new language to define "obviously ill" under section 334-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

     (2)  Specifying under section 334-127, Hawaii Revised Statutes, that the court order shall also apply to the subject in the event that the subject changes the setting of treatment when the family court determines the subject's treatment;

     (3)  Clarifying under section 334-129, Hawaii Revised Statutes, that no subject shall be physically forced to take medication under a family court order for assisted community treatment unless the subject is hospitalized or placed in a correctional facility subsequent to the date of the assisted community treatment order for failure to comply with the order of the court; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 310, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 310, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair