HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

102

TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2017

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the department of public safety to include sites that are 4.5 acres or larger in the environmental impact statement process FOR THE OAHU COMMUNITY CORRECTIONAL CENTER RELOCATION.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, the Legislature finds that the Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC) is overcrowded, obsolete, and inefficient to operate; and

 

     WHEREAS, OCCC is the largest jail facility in the State, housing about 1,200 pre-trial detainees, short-term sentenced individuals, probation and parole violators, and a pre-release work furlough center; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State wants to replace OCCC and, as of early 2017, has spent $1,500,000 of a $4,900,000 planning and design contract awarded to Architects Hawaii Ltd. and subcontractor Louis Berger U.S. to begin the OCCC replacement process; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State recently identified four potential OCCC relocation and development sites: the Department of Agriculture's Animal Quarantine Facility, Halawa Correctional Facility in Aiea, Mililani Technology Park, Lot 17, and the current OCCC site in Kalihi; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State's search of potential OCCC sites only considered development sites that have a land area that exceeds or nearly meets the State's qualification criteria of 20 acres; and

 

     WHEREAS, however, the Legislature finds that a suitable OCCC replacement can be built on considerably less land than 20 acres, while still serving the needs of inmates, the surrounding community, and the State, and strongly requests that the Department of Public Safety include additional sites that have a land area of 4.5 acres or larger; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2017, that the Department of Public Safety is requested to include sites that have a land area of 4.5 acres or larger in the environmental impact statement process for the OCCC relocation; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Public Safety is requested to consult with the task force created by House Resolution No. 85 (2016) and the Corrections Population Management Commission about the appropriate capacity and design of the OCCC replacement facility and relocation sites in view of changes to the criminal justice system that incorporate pre-trial diversion programs, expansion of Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program and other probation programs, expansion of work furlough, and alternatives to incarceration programs; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Public Safety is requested to provide a report to the Legislature no less than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2018 that includes:

 

     (1)  A list of alternative sites and the reasons for adding or omitting each alternative site from consideration as a potential site for the OCCC relocation; and

 

     (2)  Any proposed legislation, and other information the Director of Public Safety deems necessary to address the purpose of this Resolution; and

 

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

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Oahu Community Correctional Center; Department of Public Safety; Environmental Impact Statement; Potential Sites