STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1185

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 1749

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Higher Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 1749, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CRIMINAL OFFENSES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to direct the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law and the Legislative Reference Bureau to periodically identify state statutes and rules outside the Hawaii Penal Code that establish non-serious offenses that should be decriminalized.

This bill would also require:

(1) The Judiciary to provide a list of criminal offenses for which only fines are typically imposed;

(2) The School of Law and the Legislative Reference Bureau to contact the state departments or agencies that have jurisdiction over the offenses listed by the Judiciary for input as to whether and the extent to which the offenses can be decriminalized without undermining their ability to enforce laws within their jurisdiction;

(3) The School of Law and the Legislative Reference Bureau to recommend changes to the penalties imposed by the state statutes and rules identified that would make the penalties more consistent with the penalties imposed for decriminalized traffic infractions; and

(4) The Legislative Reference Bureau to draft legislation to decriminalize the offenses identified.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary and the Community Alliance on Prisons. The Legislative Reference Bureau submitted comments.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Deleting the references to the School of Law to be consistent with the approach taken by the Legislature in House Concurrent Resolution No. 261, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, 2004;

(2) Clarifying a cross reference at page 2, line 8;

(3) Requiring the Legislative Reference Bureau to submit a report of its findings and recommendations, including suggested legislation, no fewer than twenty days prior to the convening of the next regular session of the legislature; and

(4) Making a technical nonsubstantive change for the purpose of consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1749, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1749, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair