STAND. COM. REP. NO. 194

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 287

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. 287 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 as a grant-in-aid to the City and County of Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney 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, one member of the Kauaʻi County Council, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that the Victim Witness Kokua Services Unit assists in guiding victims, witnesses, and surviving family members through the criminal justice system – before, during, and after the criminal prosecution of a case – and is specifically trained and qualified to do so. Your Committee further finds that the Legislature enacted Act 204, Session Laws of Hawaii 1986 (Act 204), which established the Victim Witness Assistance Program to provide information, assistance, and support services to the victims of and witnesses to crimes committed in the State. Although Act 204 established the Victim Witness Assistance Program to be administered by the Department of the Attorney General, direct services are provided by the each county's office or department of the prosecuting attorney. This measure will provide the funding necessary for the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu's Victim Witness Assistance Program to maintain the Program's current level of vital services.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

(2) Inserting an effective date of April 23, 2057, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee notes that this measure, as amended, contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $736,785 as a grant-in-aid to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu for the Victim Witness Assistance Program, including the hiring of necessary staff.

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. 287, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 287, 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