STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2797

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2630

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2630 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 allow committed persons to create approved products and crafts to be sold to the public through the correctional industries program.  

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Community Alliance on Prisons, and three individuals.  The Department of Public Safety submitted written comments on the measure.

     Your Committee finds that the correctional industries program provides opportunities for committed persons to acquire marketable skills, prosocial behaviors, and positive work ethic while incarcerated.  Providing committed persons with job skills eases their transition back into the community and reduces the rate of recidivism.

     Currently, the sale of articles or products created by committed persons is prohibited in the State.  However, your Committee believes that repealing this prohibition and allowing committed persons to create products and crafts to be sold through the correctional industries program will provide an additional means for committed persons to gain job skills that will benefit them upon reentering the community.

     Your Committee notes that along with the need to ensure that committed persons may earn money for use while incarcerated and upon release, committed persons also may owe restitution to their victims or debts to the Department of Public Safety.  Your Committee hopes that, however the proceeds from the sale of products and crafts allowed by this measure are distributed, the distribution of those moneys are in the best interest of the committed person.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Adding a requirement for the Department of Public Safety to annually report on the amount of moneys that have been deposited into the correctional industries revolving fund from the sale of products and crafts to the public through the correctional industries program;

(2)  Adding a requirement for the Department of Public Safety to annually report on the nexus between the workforce opportunities provided through the correctional industries program during incarceration and life after incarceration; and

(3)  Changing the allocation of the proceeds from the sale of committed persons' products and crafts.

     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. 2630, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2630, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair