STAND. COM. REP. NO. 287

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1020

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 S.B. No. 1020 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTRONIC MONITORING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Public Safety and the Judiciary for electronic monitoring of released inmates.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Community Alliance on Prisons, and four individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Judiciary.

     Your Committees find that electronic monitoring is one way to track and monitor inmates who are on probation, parole, or work furlough.  Technology is able to provide continuous electronic monitoring, as needed, and saves tax dollars as electronic monitoring costs less than incarcerating an individual.  While not all released inmates need electronic monitoring, there are some offenders, including sexual offenders and habitual criminals, who are ideal candidates for electronic monitoring.  Implementation of this measure will enable the state to retain control of individuals under its custody at the least restrictive level of supervision required.

     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 S.B. No. 1020 and recommend that it pass Second Reading 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