STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2278

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2074
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No.
2074 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure, as received by your Committee,
is to ensure that female adult and juvenile offenders are
provided with a range and quality of programs and services that
are substantially equivalent to the programming offered to male
offenders.

     Your Committee finds that there are approximately 84,000
women incarcerated in jails and prisons, representing six percent
of the nationwide prison population.  Your Committee further
finds that although the number of incarcerated women has always
been significantly lower when compared to that of incarcerated
men, women are being jailed at a much faster rate.  Between 1980
and 1998, the incarceration rate for women jumped 516 percent.
Your Committee recognizes that Hawaii's incarceration rate has
mirrored this national trend.  In 1972, Hawaii had only one woman
in prison.  As of January 2000, there were approximately 398
women housed within our correctional facilities, with an
additional 83 women housed at the Oklahoma Correctional Facility.

     Your Committee notes that although the rate of incarceration
for female offenders has increased dramatically, the range and
quality of programming offered to female offenders has not.
Currently, male inmates have more community placement options,

 
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more transitional housing programs, and more job lines and
training opportunities.  Your Committee believes that due to the
unique needs of female offenders, more gender-responsive services
and programs are necessary.  Parity in programming will also
provide them with enhanced educational, social, vocational, and
parenting skills which will assist them in making a more
successful reintegration into the community.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the
Department of Public Safety, the Office of Youth Services, the
Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, the Community
Alliance on Prisons, Government Efficiency Teams, Inc., Honolulu
Information Service, the Sex Abuse Treatment Center, seventeen
women from TJ Mahoney & Associates, and a professor from the
University of Hawaii at Manoa.

     Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this
measure by deleting its contents and establishing in session law
a task force on parity for female offenders.  More specifically,
your Committee has amended this bill by:

     (1)  Designating that the task force shall be
          administratively attached to the department of public
          safety;

     (2)  Providing that the task force shall review all programs
          currently offered to female offenders, identify
          inadequacies with the current system, and develop a
          plan to increase interagency cooperation to address the
          needs unique to female offenders;

     (3)  Providing that the task force shall be comprised of no
          more than twenty members who shall be appointed by the
          director of public safety and who shall serve without
          compensation;

     (4)  Requiring that the task force submit its findings and
          recommendations to the legislature no later than twenty
          days prior to the convening of the 2001 Regular
          Session; and

     (5)  Appropriating $30,000 from the general fund, for fiscal
          year 2000-2001, to be expended by the Department of
          Public Safety to increase the availability of gender
          appropriate programming in the criminal justice system.
     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.
2074, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second

 
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Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2074, S.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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



                                   ______________________________
                                   AVERY B. CHUMBLEY, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   MATTHEW M. MATSUNAGA, Co-Chair

 
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