STAND. COM. REP. NO. 999

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1198

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1198 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE HONOLULU FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds as a grant to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu for the Honolulu Family Justice Center.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Maui, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Kauai, Honolulu Family Justice Center, Ala Kuola, and two individuals.

     Your Committees find that the Honolulu Family Justice Center provides victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking with a safe environment during some of their most vulnerable stages of separation from their abuser.  Implementation of this measure will provide comprehensive services to victims, facilitate prosecution of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking offenses, and ultimately provide better assurance that more offenders are held accountable for their actions.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Replacing "grant pursuant to chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes" with "grant-in-aid";

     (2)  Deleting risk assessment training and evaluation services from the allowed uses of the appropriated funds; and

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

     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. 1198, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1198, 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,

________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair

________________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair