STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1031

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.R. No. 99

       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.R. No. 99 entitled:

 

"SENATE RESOLUTION URGING THE GOVERNOR TO BEGIN DISCUSSIONS AND PLANS TO ESTABLISH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS TO BUILD PRISONS AND CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES IN THE STATE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to express legislative support of the concept of public-private partnerships to build prisons and correctional facilities in the State, and to urge the Governor to begin discussions and plans to establish public-private partnerships as soon as possible to deal with the State's prison overcrowding and to return the majority of our prisoners who are incarcerated on the mainland.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety; Hawaii Youth Services Network; The Pacific Resource Partnership; SSFM-PH Hawaii LLC; and SSFM International, Inc.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Community Alliance on Prisons and American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii.

 

     For over ten years the State has sent inmates to the mainland for incarceration due to overcrowding in the State's correctional facilities.  Inmates on the mainland are not able to have close support from family and friends for their rehabilitation and re‑entry efforts.

     Over $50,000,000 of Hawaii's public funds are spent annually to incarcerate inmates on the mainland.  These funds are not circulating in our economy, but in the economies of other states, providing jobs and opportunities for mainland residents and companies.

 

     New prisons and correctional facilities in the State would create local construction jobs and public safety jobs, and allow inmates to be close to their supportive families.  There are private companies that are willing to establish public-private partnerships with the State to use their financial resources to build new prison facilities in Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee wishes to clarify that this measure addresses construction only and not the management or operations of a prison.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Urging the Governor to additionally discuss and plan to establish re-entry centers, drug treatment facilities, and other correctional facilities in the state;

 

     (2)  Amending it title accordingly; 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 concurs with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 99, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.R. No. 99, S.D. 1.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair