Report Title:

Corrections; Inmates

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

72

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING AN AUDIT OF THE OUT-OF-STATE INMATE TRANSFER PRoGRAM.

 

 

WHEREAS, for many years the State has been faced with many more prisoners than it has bed spaces for; and

WHEREAS, partially because of the resulting overcrowding, the State has been found in violation of the federal civil rights of prisoners; and

WHEREAS, since December 1995, the Department of Public Safety has resorted to sending prisoners to facilities in Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Minnesota, Arizona, and Tennessee; and

WHEREAS, these out-of-state placements will cost about $24,4000,000 a year or $56 per prisoner per day for care, custody, transportation, inmate compensation, and health care; and

WHEREAS, mainland placements have not been without problems, requiring that the State transfer prisoners among facilities and terminate contracts; and

WHEREAS, the alleged problems include sexual assault of female prisoners, denial of timely medical treatment, and violation of civil rights; and

WHEREAS, poor management at the contracted facilities may lie at the root of the alleged problems; and

WHEREAS, the State faces, at minimum, liability issues if the alleged problems are not addressed and corrected; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the Senate concurring, that the Auditor is respectfully requested to conduct an audit of the out-of-state inmate transfer program of the Department of Public Safety; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to include, but not be limited to, in the scope of the audit, an assessment of the Department's contract management of its out-of-state inmate transfer program, including the allegations that Hawaii's prisoners are not adequately protected and are not being provided the programs that were contracted for; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to submit a report of findings and recommendations to the Legislature not later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Public Safety and to the Auditor.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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