STAND. COM. REP. 2088

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2314

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2314 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR A SEXUAL ASSAULT NURSE EXAMINERS PROGRAM",

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize and appropriate funds for the establishment of a sexual assault nurse examiner pilot project to provide forensic examinations for sexual assault victims in the State.

Three individuals testified in support of the measure. The State Attorney General, Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, Prosecuting Attorney for the County of Hawaii, and Sex Abuse Treatment Center, while supporting the measure's intent, opposed its passage in its current form.

Your Committees find that while rates for other crimes decreased or leveled off during the 1990s, crime rates for sexual assaults increased, thereby increasing the need for sexual assault response teams comprised of sexual assault workers, forensic examiners, and law enforcement to provide timely and sensitive medical and legal support services to victims. Since the mid-1990s, specially trained nurse examiners have provided forensic examination services to sexual assault victims in Hawaii County under the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program. Kauai County also utilizes nurse examiners, while Maui County and the City and County of Honolulu have physician-based medical legal programs.

This measure establishes a statewide SANE pilot project within the Attorney General's office, mandates the appointment of a volunteer coordinator for the program, and appropriates funds to Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui counties for implementation of a SANE program. Your Committees find that this measure raises serious concerns, including the appropriateness of placing the program within the Attorney General's Office, the establishment of a statewide program without consideration for individual county needs, the ability to recruit a qualified individual to fill a coordinator position that offers no compensation, and the lack of details regarding the purpose of the requested funds, in view of the fact that forensic examinations are funded by the counties.

Despite the above concerns, your Committees find that SANE services provide timely and sensitive assistance to sexual assault victims, help to increase sexual assault reporting, facilitate the successful prosecution of these crimes, and warrant legislative support. Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure:

(1) To appropriate an unspecified amount to Hawaii County for a SANE program coordinator, in lieu of establishing a statewide SANE pilot project within the Attorney General's Office and forensic examination requirements, requiring the appointment of a volunteer coordinator and setting forth the coordinator's duties, and appropriating $240,000 to Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui counties;

(2) By amending the measure's findings and purpose section to conform to the above amendment; and

(3) To reflect preferred drafting style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2314, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2314, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

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COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair

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RON MENOR, Chair