STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1320

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 25

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 25 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY TO ALLOW FAITH PODS BASED ON KAPU ALOHA TO BE ESTABLISHED WITHIN EACH CORRECTIONAL CENTER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Department of Public Safety to allow faith pods based on kapu aloha to be established within each correctional center.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Ohana Ho‘opakele, Malu ‘Aina, and two individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that native Hawaiians are severely overrepresented in the State's prison population and have a much higher recidivism rate than non-Hawaiians. Pu‘uhonua is a decentralized wellness center that can act as an alternative to building more prisons in the State and is based on healing inhabitants and eventually returning them back to the community. Your Committee further finds that non-violence has always been key to Hawaiians, as represented in the Hawaiian cultural practice of kapu aloha. Incarcerated individuals, or pa‘ahao, have initiated Hawaiian cultural programs within different correctional systems known as "faith pods" throughout the nation to help promote safe spaces to heal and regain their identity as Hawaiians. This measure will allow faith pods to be established in correctional center in the State to provide Hawaiians with the opportunity to practice native Hawaiian cultural practices in those centers.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments 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 concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 25, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 25, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair