STAND. COM. REP. NO. 126-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: H.B. No. 1779

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans, to which was referred H.B. No. 1779 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INCARCERATED WOMEN,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the second year of the education program for imprisoned women.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Hawaii Health & Harm Reduction Center, Women's Prison Project, Hawai‘i Friends of Restorative Justice, Community Alliance on Prisons, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that the education program for imprisoned women is a program to train incarcerated women to be general education development, or GED, tutors for their peers; provide college correspondence courses for women in the Women's Community Correctional Center; and provide reentry and transition services for women who wish to continue their education post incarceration.

Your Committee also finds that, during the first year of the program, five GED tutors were successfully trained and certified, and as of January 2022, nine women at the Women's Community Correctional Center had their GED diplomas. Of the nine graduates, six went on to enroll in post-secondary programs earning college credits.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

Should your Committee on Finance decide to hear this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider appropriating $250,000 for the second year of the education program for imprisoned women.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1779, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1779, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans,

____________________________

TAKASHI OHNO, Chair