STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2090

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2087

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2087 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE VICTIM WITNESS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu as a grant-in-aid for the Victim Witness Assistance Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that the Legislature has supported the Victim Witness Assistance Program since 1983, and in 1986 enacted section 28-111, Hawaii Revised Statutes, establishing the Victim Witness Assistance Program on a statewide basis. Although this statute established the program in the Department of the Attorney General, all direct services are provided by each county's prosecuting attorney in order to provide the most current information, assistance, funding, and support services to the crime victims and witnesses in their respective counties. Your Committee believes that adequate funding is necessary for the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu to be able to continue these vital services. This measure will assist the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu by appropriating funds for the Victim Witness Assistance Program.

Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an appropriation amount of $371,722.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2087, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2087, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair