HB2581

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that criminal justice policies that impose harsh prison sentences increase incarceration rates and costs, but frequently do not result in a commensurate reduction in crime rates. A growing body of national research explains that incarceration only has a marginal effect on crime. In fact, the Vera Institute of Justice, in a 2017 report, found that increasing incarceration in states and communities that already have high incarceration rates results in even higher crime rates. Meanwhile, the report also identified nineteen states that reduced their incarceration rate and crime rate. This data suggests that excessive incarceration does not necessarily improve public safety.

Moreover, the legislature further finds that incarceration is a particularly expensive and ineffective response to the public health problem of personal drug use. Enforcement of the offense of promotion of a dangerous drug in the third degree costs state taxpayers over $13,000,000 each year. This substantial sum is expended to incarcerate low-level, non-violent offenders. These drug possession offenses are classified as felonies and, therefore, result in lengthy prison sentences and exacerbate the severe overcrowding conditions in Hawaii’s prisons. Despite decades of policies focused on criminalization and incarceration of drug users, a 2018 study of drug use in Hawaii showed that from 2011 to 2016, there were no significant changes in adult or youth substance use. The State's experience corroborates mounting national data demonstrating that incarceration has no effect on rates of drug use or overdose deaths, but actually increases recidivism among those at low risk to reoffend. Despite its substantial expense, incarceration has not adequately deterred substance abuse or otherwise made our communities safer. Thus, applying the harsh treatment of felony level classification and punishment to all drug possession offenses, especially those at the lowest level, has proven to be excessively costly and woefully ineffective.

Reducing Hawaii’s overreliance on lengthy incarceration as a response to non-violent drug possession can save substantial human and financial resources, which can be reinvested in other proven treatment methods to improve public health and safety. Other jurisdictions across the nation have experienced the same cost-benefit imbalance with regard to incarceration for drug crimes and, as a result, at least five states have reclassified all felony personal drug possession offenses as misdemeanors. These states are beginning to see significant reductions in their incarcerated populations and corrections spending and are reinvesting their savings into proven treatment solutions as well as enforcement against more serious crimes. Moreover, with these policy changes, these states have taken aggressive steps toward reducing the harmful collateral consequences of felony convictions that ripple through the lives of those convicted, their families, and their communities, while improving the health and safety of their communities.

The legislature also finds that the imposition of incarceration to punish simple, low-level drug possession offenses should be redirected to the reduced and alternative sentencing options available under the misdemeanor classification. This will help reduce prison overcrowding, save taxpayer dollars, and free up resources to be reinvested into more effective treatment programs. The potential benefits of reducing the penalties for first-time and low-level drug offenders far outweigh the high costs of treating these non-violent offenses as felonies. Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Create a new misdemeanor offense of promoting a dangerous drug in the fourth degree for the possession of any dangerous drug in any amount;

(2) Limit the class C felony offense of promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree for the possession of certain dangerous drugs in an amount or weight equal to one-sixteenth of an ounce or more; and

(3) Retroactively make convictions for promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree a misdemeanor.

SECTION 2. Chapter 712, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part IV to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§712- Promoting a dangerous drug in the fourth degree. (1) A person commits the offense of promoting a dangerous drug in the fourth degree if the person knowingly possesses any dangerous drug in any amount.

(2) Promoting a dangerous drug in the fourth degree is a misdemeanor."

SECTION 3. Section 712-1243, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (1) to read as follows:

"(1) A person commits the offense of promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree if the person knowingly possesses [~~any dangerous drug in any amount.~~] one or more preparations, compounds, mixtures, or substances of an aggregate weight of one-sixteenth ounce or more, containing methamphetamine, heroin, morphine, or cocaine or any of their respective salts, isomers, and salts of isomers."

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval and shall be applied retroactively to June 1, 1972, in any case, action, proceeding, or claim under section 712-1243, Hawaii Revised Statutes; provided that any person convicted under section 712-1243, Hawaii Revised Statutes, prior to the effective date of this Act shall be deemed to be convicted of a misdemeanor and not wrongfully convicted within the meaning of chapter 661B, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

INTRODUCED BY:

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2581
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2020
STATE OF HAWAII