STAND. COM. REP. NO. 432

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 1492
                                     




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Public Safety and Military Affairs and
Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No.
1492 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC
     ADMINISTRATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to clarify the definition of
contraband as used for the offense of promoting prison contraband
in the second degree.

     The Department of Public Safety and the Department of the
Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu
testified in support of the measure.

     Your Committees find that currently there are two separate
laws covering the offense of promoting prison contraband.
Section 710-1022, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), describes the
more serious offense of promoting prison contraband in the first
degree that occurs when a person conveys a dangerous instrument
or drug to a person confined in a correctional facility or where
an inmate possesses the same.  

     The second and lesser offense outlined in section 710-1023,
HRS, promoting contraband in the second degree occurs when a
person conveys contraband in any form to a person confined in a
correctional facility or where an inmate possesses contraband in
any form.

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 432
                                 Page 2

 
     Your Committees further find that the term "contraband" as
used in section 710-1023, HRS, includes any article or thing
which the inmate is prohibited by law to possess.  By definition,
this would include dangerous instruments or drugs which are
already prohibited in section 710-1022, HRS.  As a result the
prohibitions in section 710-1023 and section 710-1022 overlap.

     Under a current Hawaii Supreme Court ruling, if two degrees
of an offense overlap, the offender must be charged with the
lesser offense. As a result, section 710-1022, HRS, which carries
the higher class B felony penalty, is currently ineffectual and
cannot be utilized by prosecutors.

     Your Committees find that this measure clarifies the
ambiguity in the law and give effect to the original legislative
intent of these two provisions.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Public Safety and Military Affairs and Judiciary
and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your
Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
1492 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be placed on
the calendar for Third Reading.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Public Safety
                                   and Military Affairs and
                                   Judiciary and Hawaiian
                                   Affairs,

                                   
                                   
                                   
                                   
______________________________     ______________________________
PAUL T. OSHIRO, Chair              NESTOR GARCIA, Chair