STAND. COM. REP. NO. 819

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1312

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 1312 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH AND MORALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify and update the sex trafficking and promoting prostitution criminal offense statutes by:

(1) Clarifying the definition of "profits from prostitution";

(2) Restructuring provisions that define terms or establish exemptions for part I of chapter 712, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to enhance readability; and

(3) Making technical amendments to update statutory references to part I of chapter 712, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and one individual.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of the Public Defender.

Your Committee finds that in State v. Ibarra, the Hawaii Supreme Court held that "profits from prostitution" did not include repayment of a loan, thereby creating a safe harbor when a trafficker extends a loan or a service and categorizes proceeds received from prostituting the victims as a repayment. Your Committee further finds that one of the more common recruitment methods human traffickers use is to extend a loan to victims that force them into prostitution that can never be fully repaid. This measure will close the loophole created by State v. Ibarra by making clear that "profits from prostitution" includes money, things of value, or other property received, even if related to an agreement or understanding or a repayment of debt.

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 Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1312, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1312, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair