THE SENATE                           S.C.R. NO.            16
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                    SENATE  CONCURRENT
                        RESOLUTION

  REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY TO STRENGTHEN ITS
    ATTEMPTS TO DEAL WITH PRISON OVERCROWDING.
 


 1        WHEREAS, the State currently faces a crisis in the prison
 2   population, necessitating the transfer of inmates to mainland
 3   prisons to relieve overcrowding and the building of a new
 4   prison on the Big Island; and
 5   
 6        WHEREAS, prison operations are expensive, costing the
 7   State about $300,000 per prison bed to build a prison, and
 8   $26,000 per year to maintain a prisoner; and
 9   
10        WHEREAS, overcrowded prisons inhibit the rehabilitation of
11   prisoners who will eventually be released back into the
12   community; and
13   
14        WHEREAS, the average prison stay in Hawaii is fifty per
15   cent longer than the national average; and
16   
17        WHEREAS, Hawaii's prison population has recently increased
18   by over twenty-one per cent compared to a national average of
19   less than five per cent; and
20   
21        WHEREAS, the Corrections Population Management Commission
22   (Commission) was created in 1993 under chapter 353F, Hawaii
23   Revised Statutes, to "establish maximum inmate population
24   limits for each correctional facility and to formulate policies
25   and procedures to prevent the inmate population from exceeding
26   the capacity of each correctional facility" and to recommend
27   cost-effective mechanisms and policies on ten enumerated
28   matters, including prison management, and the rehabilitation
29   and treatment of inmates; and
30   
31        WHEREAS, it appears that the Commission has not been
32   functioning in the manner intended by the Legislature; now,
33   therefore,
34   
35        BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twentieth Legislature

 
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                                  S.C.R. NO.            16
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1   of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 1999, the House of
 2   Representatives concurring, that the Governor is urged to take
 3   necessary steps so that the Corrections Population Management
 4   Commission becomes more proactive in seeking solutions to
 5   prison overcrowding and in formulating polices to improve
 6   prison rehabilitation programs; and
 7   
 8        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
 9   Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the
10   Corrections Population Management Commission, and the Director
11   of Public Safety.
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15                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________