STAND. COM. REP. NO. 173

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 603

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 603 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to create restrictions and guidelines on the use of administrative segregation and disciplinary segregation in correctional facilities.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Community Alliance on Prisons, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i, and seventeen individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Public Safety and United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO.

Your Committee finds that administrative or disciplinary segregation on inmates is a significant action taken against inmates and use of either requires clearly established guidelines.  Administrative and disciplinary segregation are actions ripe for abuse, and the impacts of any such abuse can be harmful and long-lasting.  Accordingly, this measure:

     (1)  Establishes the maximum length of time that an inmate may be held in administrative or disciplinary segregation;

     (2)  Establishes procedures for continued placement in administrative or disciplinary segregation;

     (3)  Creates restrictions on the deprivation of certain necessities of an inmate in administrative or disciplinary segregation;

     (4)  Establishes guidelines for the use of administrative or disciplinary segregation on a member of a vulnerable population; and

     (5)  Establishes criteria for classifying an inmate as a member of a vulnerable population.

     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. 603 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

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

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CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair