STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1446
Honolulu, Hawaii
H.D. 2
S.D. 1
President of the Senate
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 1552, H.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to support best practices for an effective correctional system by:
(1) Establishing the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission; and
(2) Consolidating the Reentry Commission and Corrections Population Management Commission into the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission and transferring the rights, powers, functions, and duties of the consolidated commissions to the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission.
Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawai‘i State Commission on the Status of Women, County of Hawai‘i Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Community Alliance on Prisons, Common Cause Hawaii, Ho‘omanapono Political Action Committee, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i, and five individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Crime Victim Compensation Commission. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Paroling Authority, Sex Abuse Treatment Center, Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawaii.
Your Committees find that an increasing number of states are calling for independent oversight of their correctional systems with at least eight states already having established independent oversight mechanisms to monitor and improve their correctional systems. Your Committees further find that independent oversight of the State's correctional system helps ensure personnel and fiscal accountability, supports safe conditions for employees, inmates, and detainees, and provides positive reform to a rehabilitative and therapeutic correctional system.
Your Committees therefore find that the Reentry Commission and Corrections Population Management Commission have overlapping responsibilities and consolidating the commissions into a single, independent oversight commission led by an oversight coordinator and guided by an experienced group of commission members will promote efficiency and provide greater opportunities for member participation.
Your Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Adding
knowledge of crime victim specialization as one of the preferred qualifications for a member of the Hawaii
Correctional System Oversight Commission;
(2) Deleting
language that would have authorized the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission
to hold public meetings it deems necessary and to hold executive meetings
closed to the public, for certain purposes; and
(3) Making
technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and
consistency.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1552, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1552, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, 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 Government Operations,
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________________________________ LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair |
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________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair |
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