STAND. COM. REP. NO. 702-04

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: H.B. No. 706

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 706 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO OFFENSES AGAINST THE PERSON,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of health care professionals and deter inmates and other patients from committing acts of violence against health care professionals by:

(1) Making violence committed against a health care professional who is engaged in the performance of a duty or is within a health care facility, the offense of assault in the second degree; and

(2) Providing that a person commits the offense of terroristic threatening in the first degree if the person commits terroristic threatening against a health care professional as defined in the second degree assault statute.

The Department of Public Safety, the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO and concerned individuals testified in support of this bill. The Office of the Public Defender opposed this measure.

Your Committee finds that a serious shortage of staff exists at the Hawaii State Hospital, which gives patients the opportunity to physically abuse the staff. This measure will provide a deterrent to patients committed to mental healthcare facilities from assaulting their caretakers.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Changing its effective date to February 31, 2525, to facilitate further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

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 H.B. No. 706, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 706, H.D. 1.

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

 

____________________________

ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair