STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1752

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: S.B. No. 694

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 694 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DETENTION OF MINORS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prohibit minors from being held in jails, lockups, or prisons for adults.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Office of the Public Defender; Human Rights for Kids; ACLU of Hawaiʻi; Opportunity for Youth Action Hawaiʻi; and one individual.

Your Committee finds that minors held in adult correctional facilities often lack appropriate rehabilitative services and face higher risks of harm, including abuse and suicide. This measure aims to promote the well-being and rehabilitation of minors by preventing minors from being held in adult jails or prisons.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Repealing the requirement that the official in charge of a facility for the detention of adult offenders or persons charged with crime shall inform the court immediately when a minor who is or appears to be under eighteen years of age is received at the facility;

(2) Allowing minors to be temporarily held for processing or while in transit to court in an adult jail or lockup in a county that does not have a juvenile detention facility, under certain circumstances;

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 694, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 694, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair