STAND. COM. REP. NO. 152

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 361

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. 361 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE COMMUNITY OUTREACH COURT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to permanently establish and appropriate funds for the Community Outreach Court as a division of the District Court of the First Circuit.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Office of the Public Defender, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, and Opportunity for Youth Action Hawaiʻi.

Your Committee finds that many homeless persons who receive citations for nonviolent crimes are unable to attend court or have misplaced their paperwork due to the transient and unstable nature of homelessness, which leaves the courts no option but to issue a bench warrant. Bench warrants can be traumatic for the defendant and expends law enforcement officers' time and resources. To help address this, the Judiciary, Office of the Public Defender, and Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu established a Community Outreach Court project to make court appearances more accessible to homeless persons. Since its inception, the Community Outreach Court program has addressed more than ten thousand cases, recalled more than nine hundred bench warrants, lifted more than six thousand driver license stoppers, and assisted more than six hundred participants with social services or referrals. The Community Outreach Court program removes some of the many barriers that homeless people face when trying to secure basic necessities such as employment, income assistance, and housing and should be a permanent program.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

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

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committee notes that this measure contains unspecified appropriation amounts and unspecified numbers of positions. Your Committee further notes that your Committee has requested the Judiciary, Department of the Attorney General, Office of the Public Defender, and Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu to provide your Committee with the exact appropriation amounts and numbers of positions needed to implement the Community Outreach Court program established by this measure.

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. 361, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 361, 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