STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1290

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 457

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety, to which was referred H.B. No. 457, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INCARCERATED PARENTS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the expansion of parent‑child interaction programs, such as the Strengthening Keiki of Incarcerated Parents Project, at state correctional facilities.

 

     The SKIP Partnership, the Community Alliance on Prisons, Parents and Children Together, Child & Family Service, the Hawaii Youth Services Network, and six individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure.  The Department of Public Safety submitted testimony in support of the intent of this measure.

 

     Your Committees find that an increased focus needs to be placed on the children of incarcerated individuals to maintain a parent-child bond.  Intervention is also needed with parent‑child relationships in the non-incarcerated offender population.  According to the testimony, studies have indicated that the strengthening of family relationships has a positive effect on recidivism.  Studies have also shown that therapeutic involvement with families during incarceration builds better and stronger relationships between the incarcerated parent's children and the incarcerated parent once the parent is released.

 

     It is your Committees' intent to support the continuation and expansion of parent-child interaction programs, such as the Strengthening Keiki of Incarcerated Parents Project, at state correctional facilities and at institutions servicing other offender populations to facilitate appropriate interactions and bonding between offender parents and their children.

 

     Several testifiers stated a preference for the Senate version of this measure, S.B. No. 1174, S.D. 1.  The Senate version of this measure includes provisions for:

 

     (1)  Intervention with parent‑child relationships in the non‑incarcerated offender population;

 

     (2)  More realistic data collection standards on the Department of Public Safety;

 

     (3)  The confidentiality of the demographic data that is collected on the children of incarcerated parents; and

 

     (4)  More flexibility to the Department of Public Safety for the use of the appropriated funds.

 

     Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure by deleting all of its provisions and inserting the contents of S.B. No. 1174, S.D. 1.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 457, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 457, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety,

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair