STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2024

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2816

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2816 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PAROLE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to specify that funds for discharged persons be subject to legislative appropriation.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Paroling Authority, Community Alliance On Prisons, and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Young Progressives Demanding Action. Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that an efficient and effective parole system is essential to the proper functioning of the State's corrections system. The law provides that the Hawaii Paroling Authority, in its discretion, may upon discharge or parole provide a committed person with up to $200 to meet the committed person's immediate needs. This measure clarifies that provision by ensuring the Paroling Authority shall only provide these funds if legislative appropriations for this specific purpose have been authorized and allocated to the Authority.

However, your Committee also finds that the provision of funds alone is often insufficient to meet the immediate needs of a committed person being discharged. It is also important that the person receive appropriate resource referrals upon transitioning back into society.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring that committed persons be given appropriate resource referrals before being furnished with funds to meet the committed person's immediate needs by the Hawaii Paroling Authority at discharge; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment 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. 2816, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2816, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair