STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1100-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: S.B. No. 2641

S.D. 2

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 S.B. No. 2641, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE JUDICIARY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for residential programs that allow minor children to remain with their mothers while participating in the program, including community-based furlough programs, residential drug treatment programs, therapeutic community programs, and mental health programs, to reduce the risk of trauma and multigenerational incarceration.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Department of Human Services, Women's Prison Project, Community Alliance on Prisons, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i, and seven individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that as of 2018, seventy-five percent of incarcerated women in Hawaii had children. Studies have shown that when women in the criminal justice system are separated from their children, the experience has devastating impacts on the children's mental health and development and can increase the risk of multigenerational incarceration. The separation also has a traumatic effect on the mothers. Your Committee also finds that the number of programs that allow minors to remain with their mothers while in treatment is limited. Your Committee believes that these programs require more funding to increase operations and bed space.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Amending its purpose section;

(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.

Your Committee respectfully requests that should your Committees on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs and Finance hear this measure, they consider including an appropriation to the Department of Public Safety to facilitate the purposes of this measure.

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 S.B. No. 2641, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2641, S.D. 2, 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