HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

876

TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

relating to public safety.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that in 2001, the federal Bureau of Prisons opened a three hundred twenty-five thousand-square-foot, $63,000,000 detention center at 351 Elliot Street on the island of Oahu.  Constructed by Dick Pacific Construction and located on the west side of the Honolulu international airport, the Federal Detention Center has a capacity of six hundred seventy beds on five levels of a seven-floor facility.  In addition, most of the beds can be converted to double bunks to increase capacity.

     The Honolulu Federal Detention Center has integrated state-of-the-art surveillance and management technologies, allowing a single worker to monitor a wing of sixty-four beds, and staff to "quick freeze" individually packed meals up to forty-eight hours in advance for refrigeration and later reheating and serving.

     Furthermore, because of its location within urban Honolulu, high visibility from the H-1 freeway, local roads nearby, and air traffic landing and taking off within its vicinity, the Honolulu Federal Detention Center was designed to meet all federal correctional facility standards without looking like a prison.  It was also designed to accommodate a wide variety of uses, including inmate cells, office areas, medical facilities, recreational areas, storage rooms, food preparation areas, laundry, mechanical rooms, security, and communications.

     The entire center consists of two buildings:

     (1)  A twelve-story main tower with a two-story administration base; and

     (2)  A single-story warehouse and receiving building.

     The center also includes a one hundred eighty-two-stall parking area fronting the main tower.

     The purpose of this Act is to direct the department of public safety and department of accounting and general services to plan and design the construction and operation of a new minimum-security facility that either includes or is located at a site with appropriate access to courts, public transportation, drug rehabilitation centers, transitional or reintegration programs, and other support services, similar to the facilities of the Honolulu Federal Detention Center, to manage the continued growth of Hawaii's inmate population.

     SECTION 2.  The department of public safety and the department of accounting and general services shall plan and design the construction and operation of a new minimum-security facility at the site of the existing Oahu community correctional center, similar to the facilities of the Honolulu Federal Detention Center.  The department of public safety shall submit a status report to the legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the 2012 regular session, setting forth the results and recommendations of the plan, including:

(1)  Transitional housing of inmates while construction of the new facility takes place; and

(2)  The cost of preparing an environmental impact statement in accordance with chapter 343.

     SECTION 3.  The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $        or so much thereof as may be necessary and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary is appropriated for fiscal year 2011-2012 for the planning and design of a minimum-security correctional facility at the site of the Oahu community correctional center.

     SECTION 4.  The appropriation made for the capital improvement project authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made; provided that all moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2014, shall lapse as of that date.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of public safety for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2011.

                       

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

 

 


 


 

Report Title:

Prisons; Jails; Correctional Facilities; Construction

 

Description:

Directs the department of public safety and the department of accounting and general services to plan and design the construction and operation of a new minimum security facility at the site of the existing Oahu community correctional facility.

 

 

 

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.