STAND. COM. REP. NO. 736

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1357

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1357, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Public Safety to develop a master plan to return Hawaii inmates from mainland correctional facilities.

 

     More specifically, the master plan is to include a time table for its implementation and address issues such as increasing prison space and providing interventional, educational, and rehabilitation programs in the State.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from Jeanne Ohta, Executive Director, The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii; Kat Brady, Coordinator, Community Alliance on Prisons; Pamela Lichty, President, The Drug Policy Action Group; and five concerned individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that bringing inmates from Hawaii back from mainland facilities is in the best interests of the inmates, the inmates' families, and the State as a whole.  Your Committee believes, however, that the provision of intervention and rehabilitation programs and adequate prison space are necessary to successfully accomplish this objective.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting the specific deadline by which the Department of Public Safety is required to develop a master plan, to provide consistency with the Department's deadline for submittal of the plan to the Legislature; and

 

     (2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the issue.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1357, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1357, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair