STAND. COM. REP. NO.  618-16

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

 

RE:   H.B. No. 2388

      H.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 2388, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to facilitate, in an expeditious and efficient manner, the development or expansion of in-state correctional facilities.  Specifically, this measure:

 

     (1)  Exempts the State from environmental impact statement or assessment requirements for a correctional facility to be built on an existing parcel of the Halawa Correctional Facility;

 

     (2)  Clarifies the Governor's authority to negotiate for the construction of a correctional facility to include the authority to negotiate for construction of a jail, such as that needed on Maui, and aligning environmental impact statement and assessment requirements for such a jail with generally applicable requirements;

 

     (3)  Requires the Governor to conduct a feasibility study that includes reconstructing the Oahu Community Correctional Center with a smaller footprint on the land that it currently occupies and redeveloping the remainder of the site;

 

     (4)  Specifies the design criteria for a newly built Oahu Community Correctional Center; and

 

(5)  Appropriates funds for reconstruction of the Oahu Community Correctional Center and the relocation of the Maui Community Correctional Center.

 

     The Department of Public Safety, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, and Building Industry Association of Hawaii testified in support of this measure.  The Community Alliance on Prisons; Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice; Life of the Land; Hoomana Pono, LLC; Institute for Human Services; Sierra Club of Hawaii; IMUAlliance; and two concerned individuals testified in opposition to this measure.  The Department of the Attorney General provided comments.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Removing the exemption from environmental impact statement or assessment requirements for a correctional facility built on an existing parcel of the Halawa Correctional Facility;

 

     (2)  Restoring the sixty day public comment period following notification of either an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2388, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it be referred to your Committee on Finance, in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2388, H.D. 2.

 

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land,

 

 

____________________________

RYAN I. YAMANE, Chair

 

____________________________

CHRIS LEE, Chair