STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3019

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2454

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 2454, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAII CORRECTIONAL INDUSTRIES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a three-year Correctional Industries Former Inmate Employment Pilot Project within the Department of Public Safety to assist former inmates as they reenter into society.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Community Alliance on Prisons, Ho‘omanapono Political Action Committee, Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, Young Progressives Demanding Action, and four individuals.

Your Committees find that successfully reintegrating former inmates back into society is essential for promoting and protecting public welfare. Your Committees also find that former inmates who are gainfully employed are less likely to re-offend and have a greater chance of becoming upstanding citizens. Your Committees further find that ninety-five percent of inmates will eventually be released from prison and that it is in the best interest of the State to facilitate the reentry of former inmates into society by providing opportunities for gainful employment. The Hawaii Correctional Industries Program employs several hundred inmates every year in print, furniture, canteen, and sewing shops that are located within correctional facilities as well as through outside work-lines that clean and maintain highways and byways. Your Committees find that this successful program could provide even more opportunities for former inmates as they transition back into society. Accordingly, this measure establishes a three-year pilot project within the Department of Public Safety to provide full-time equivalent employment in the Hawaii Correctional Industries Program to up to five former inmates who meet eligibility criteria.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2454, H.D. 1, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair