STAND. COM. REP. NO. 271

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1268

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1268 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:

     (1)  Require the Department of Public Safety to construct a multi-story correctional facility at the Halawa Correctional Facility to replace the existing Oahu Community Correctional Center; and

     (2)  Authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds and appropriate funds for the planning, design, and construction of the multi-story correctional facility.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Community Alliance on Prisons.

     Your Committee finds that the State's correctional facilities are extremely old and are in need of significant repair and maintenance.  The Oahu Community Correctional Center is a critical facility that is in need of repairs and upgrades.  Moving the Oahu Community Correctional Center's inmates and provided services to a new facility at the Halawa Correctional Facility, a location that is capable of accommodating a new multi-story Oahu Community Correctional Center if several older portions of the prison are torn down and replaced, furthers public safety and provides the State with a much needed modern correctional facility.  Implementation of this measure is a cost-efficient way to provide the State with an improved and modern correctional facility.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1268 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair