STAND. COM. REP. NO. 49

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 665

       S.D. 1

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. 665 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PRISONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Create an independent Prison Oversight Committee to monitor and report on the conditions of state correctional facilities;

     (2)  Expand visitation access to correctional facilities to include Prison Oversight Committee members; and

     (3)  Authorize Prison Oversight Committee members to privately interview an inmate confined in any state correctional facility.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Community Alliance on Prisons and two individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Public Safety.

     Your Committee finds that there is growing concern regarding the operation of the State's correctional facilities.  Over the past several years, there has been an increase in the State's incarcerated population despite a decrease in crime.  Despite the massive expenditure of taxes and the Department of Public Safety's mandate to operate humane and safe correctional facilities, there is little oversight of these facilities.  Implementation of this measure will provide better assurance that the State's correctional facilities comply with federal and state laws and achieve transparency and accountability in the operation of safe and humane correctional facilities by establishing an independent Prison Oversight Committee and expanding correctional facility visitation access and authority to interview inmates to Prison Oversight Committee members.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by 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 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. 665, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 665, S.D. 1, 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