STAND. COM. REP. NO. 482

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 44

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 44 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 performance indicators, including specified statistics, that accurately reflect progress toward specific goals, including:

 

     (1)  Reducing the rate of recidivism;

 

     (2)  Decreasing prisoner assaults on correctional staff;

 

     (3)  Reducing correctional staff turnover; and

 

     (4)  Improving departmental efficiencies in staffing, budgeting, and data management and analysis.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Community Alliance on Prisons, ACLU of Hawaii, The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, The Libertarian Party, Hawaii Women's Coalition, and four individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Paroling Authority.

 

     Act 8, First Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2007 (Act 8), enacted the Community Safety Act, which was codified as chapter 353H, Hawaii Revised Statutes.  The Community Safety Act established a comprehensive offender reentry system under the purview of the Department of Public Safety.  Act 8 also required the Department of Public Safety to submit to the Legislature annual reports through 2010 relating to the implementation, progress, and effectiveness of the program components specified in Act 8.

 

     Your Committee finds that while the Department of Public Safety's annual report lists program activities and statistics, it does not include information on program outcomes.  Your Committee believes that performance indicators are an effective means of tracking the progress of the comprehensive reentry system.

 

     Just as every business that wants to succeed sets some measurement or evaluation for positive outcomes, your Committee believes that tracking not only the programs, but also the success rate of participants will make it easier to gauge the success of and facilitate improvements and course corrections to its programs using performance indicators.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Consolidating specified existing reports, including the report using performance indicators, into one annual corrections and program report, at the recommendation of the Department of Public Safety;

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to allow for further discussion; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 44, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 44, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair